The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1908. THE BAKERS’ STRIKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 406, 4 July 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1908. THE BAKERS’ STRIKE.

Commenting on the recent Bakers’ Strike, the Wairarapa News says inter alia .—ln Wellington some eighty bakers have gone out on strike practically without warning. They should pay the penalty for their breach of law, but otherwise be entirely ignored and allowed to remain out. If it is the Eabour Department’s duty to see the Arbitration law is vindicated, it should at once use its machinery to assist in replacing those eighty bakers. It should not be a difficult task. If the law held that the act of striking had disbanded the union and practically made nonunionists of the men, no doubt many would soon be applying for reinstatement as they saw their chances of re-employment steadily diminishing. The bakers had recently obtained an award giving them an increase of three shillings a week all round, and it was to be tried for two years. It was in force about two weeks when the strike took place. We do not offer any opinion as to whether the increase was sufficient, but the bakers’ union applied for the award and having obtained it, and with it cer-

laiuly an improvement on their previous circumstances, they should have felt as fast bound to work for the award wage as their employers were to pay it, until the time came when they could approach the court again ; but they have acted regardless of all ideas of fairplay or consideration towards their employers or the public, and in utter defiance of the Act which they had used for their own benefit. They have therefore placed themselves outside all consideration either from the labour Department, their former employers, or the public. Having gone out they should be allowed to remain out, until they feel disposed to take the chance as individuals and not as unionists, to which title and privilege the law should declare they had forfeited the right. Of course at the outset there is this difficulty to be faced : various unions are affiliated, and trades and labour councils have the power of making one strike dovetail into many strikes, until the whole system of industry becomes chaotic ; but are we to admit that the trades unions are stronger thau the Government, the Parliament, and the mass ol the people who are not trades unionists ? Are we to believe that the bulk of the unionists themselves are so utterly devoid of all spirit of honour and fair dealing that they would join in a strike founded upon a defiance of an Arbitration Court award ? Surely not. If it could be thought that the majority are like Mr Andrew Collins, who speaks of Arbitration as “tyranny,” it would give one a feeling ot hopelessness. When a man, supposed to have sufficient intelligence to act as guide and leader to fighters in any cause, speaks of the beneficient principle of arbitration as ‘tyranny’ it makes oue marvel what mental calibre are the rank and file composed of. It is palpably of uo use paltering with this matter of strikes and strikers. If men having a Court to go to with their grievances choose to put themselves out of Court, they should be allowed to remain out of Court until they ask leave to come back in a more reasonable frame of mind. If chaos comes as the result, then let us have chaos, and as people fight it through to calm and coramou sense again in good British fashion. At present we appear to have as much back bone as a jelly fish in carrying out our efforts for industrial peace, forgetting that peace in any cause was never gained by weakness aud indecision. There should, of course, be a “ sweet reasonableness ” in all things, but this ignoring of a vital clause of the Arbitration law lias gone beyond all reason, and we should firmly grip our nettle.