PUBLIC SERVICE

Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1931, Page 3

PUBLIC SERVICE

COMPULSORY UNIONISM. !N'.S.W. CABINET’S DECISION. SYDNEY, November 20. By a decision of the State Cabinet yesterday, Ministers in future will insist that all employees of their respec-. tive departments shall become unionists. The j'Cjabinet adopted (the following motion: “Ministers should take steps to enforce the Government’s policy of preference to unionists in Government employment. Further, that all Ministers should make it their business to see that all employees become and remain financial members of a bona fide and registered trade union.” The Minister of Works (Mr Davidson), when he first took-. office the present Government, issued a minute in his department that all employees ■should forthwith become members of unions. He recently announced that his ultimatum had been obeyed, and that there was not an employee in the Works Department who was not now a bona ,fide trade unionist. He added that the loyalists who had been employed in the Rothbury mine, and who had subsequently been transferred to positions in the Works Department, had been dismissed at liis coramano. “Apparently Ministers regard themselves as agents for the trade unions,” said'the leader of the State Opposition (Mr Bavin!, last night. 'i “The Government’s whole policy indicates that Ministers are mere agents for the trade unions. Now, apparently, the Government is prepared to make itself collectors of union subscriptions. The public interests apparently have long since ceased *o count.” Mr H. Gordon Bennett, president of the Chamber of Manufactures, said he did not think it was treating the unemployed at all generously that tne Government proposed to penalise them by refusing them employment if they were not members of a union. “A man who is unemployed is frequently unable to pay his union dues,” he said, “and, therefore, he becomes ineligible to accept work that the Government may be offering. The Government is probably using it as a threat to those members of the unemployed who do not how to its demands. This is a time when we should relax, and not make it more difficult for industry to carry -on. In some industries there are very few employees who are members of unions. It is their wish not to )ie unionists, and the freedom that these Labour politicians talk so -much about is denied them, and they are to be forced to join a union whether they wish to or not.” ...

Mr W. A. Flynn, president of the Public Service Association, stated last night that the decision of the Government would mean a substantial increase in the membership of the association, although they were . very nearly at full strength now with a membership of approximately 700 members, while the Professional Officers’ Associtaion had another 1000 members, and the Teachers’ Federation accounted for nearly .all, of the balance.