TROUBLE IN THE UMBER INDUSTRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1920, Page 4

TROUBLE IN THE UMBER INDUSTRY.

ONE BIG UNION AGITATION. THE METHODS OF THE SYNDI CALISTS. AVo learn that the employees of the Egmont Box Company’s mill at Ohutu have ceased work, this action being taken against the strong advice of the Union’s Executive. That is hut one mark of the trouble brewing in the sawmilling and timber trade owing to the violent agitation of a set of syndicalist class conscious advocates. AVe say “class conscious” hut might fairly say class mad. The idea of these industrial would-be-dictators is explained in' this week’s issue of the Maoriland AVorker’ It is to have all workers enrolled in the "New Zealand AVorkerS Union” which is affiliated to the “Australian -AVorkers Union” and so have “one big Union of Australasia. Ibis Union is to be on the basis of., class and not of occupation. From there it will only be one or two steps to the “dictatorship of the proletariat, the establishment of Soviet Government find the rule of select commissaries after the pattern of Lenin and Trotsky. Of course civil war and bloodshed would he inevitable but that is a trifle to the Industrial Unionists who generally preach pacificism hut are not dismayed by the idea of war in their own country. THE. METHODS OF ABUSIVE ATTACK.

AA’e have before us now a copy of a manifesto allegedly issued by one Frank Langstone, Secretary King Conn try Sawmill and Timber AVorkers Union. Whether this is from the Union or is Air Langstone’s own invention wc do not know. It is headed “Please put this up in a. prominent place for -all to see.” Tins flamboyant shriek starts off by abusing the Secretaries of the Auckland and Wellington Arbitration Unions and makes the mean contemptible gibe, as an appeal to class passion, that these Secretaries “are being strongly supported by the masters,” which in labour circles is tantamount to calling them traitors. It then says that the AVages Agreement obtained by these Arbitration Unions “are very much below what is being paid in'this district” and puts forward the distinctly lying argument that “all who subscribe to those Unions must lie prepared to accept a lower standard than they are now receiving.” AA’e have yet to learn of a single instance, either in the King Country or out of it, where any of the employers have suggested paying lower rates than the men are now receiving. However, any lying suggestions is enough for a mean purpose. Air Langstone should know that in many occupations higher rates than those specified in the Industrial Agreements are being paid. AA’e hold no brief for the Arbitration Secretaries but merely as onlookers it strikes us as contemptible to find that men who .have fought for their Unions for many years are subjected to abusive attacks by comparative newcomers and all apparently because they dare to ha vg opinions of their own, or that the fresh hands want to gain position and be masters of the whole field. This circular savs to the workers, “AVe want you to add to our intellectual strength,” how nice and flattering. TlfC.v certainly want more intellect because on the present lines of mere class passion and hatred they stand; a good chance, if successful, in wrecking the industry, in which ease the rank and file will he the sufferers. AY HAT HAS TO BE FACED. The sawmill employers who want steady trade and the workers who want steady employment had better face the -stern fact that this semi 1.4V.44'.. class unionism means constant trouble, strikes and bullying and an endeavour to confiscate the industry by force of numbers even if in so doing they smash it. There is no law to restrain the agitator who may wreck a trade or industry thereby destroying property and endangering people’s living. After many n strike in which hundreds of families have suffered severely the paid agitator has merely gone to another field elsewhere. The people have to protect themselves against the designing schemes and abuse of the excessively class conscious crank. He may he a ilia n possessed of a craze to 1 establish a new form of economic class tyranny or his class may consist mainly of number one—himself; in either case lie is dangerous to trade and industry on which the living of the people truly depends. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League).