FLAXMILLS’ EMPLOYEES' UNION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 452, 4 March 1909, Page 3

FLAXMILLS’ EMPLOYEES' UNION.

CIRCULAR FROM THE EXECUTIVE.

The following is a copy ol a circular forwarded by the Executive of the Flaxmills’ Employees’ Union to members: —

To the Members oe the Manawatu Flaxmill Employees’ Industrial Union op Workers :

It has been decided by your Management Committee, after due consideration, that the present is an opportune time to lay before all our members a detailed account of the workings of the Union’s present policy during the last four months. This explanation appears to be more necessary by reason of the fact that the policy has been more agressive than the. one previously pursued, and it is possible that some of our members not having a full knowledge of the facts, fail to see the reason of the change. It is with a view to removing this detraction that your Committee are handing you this report. Some six months ago it was noticed by many of our members that persistent and frequent misstatements with regard to wages, labour conditions, etc., ruling in our industry were being circulated through the medium of the public press, and it was thereupon decided that for the future none of these should be allowed to pass without an official contradiction from the Union. How needful this decision was may be judged from the fact that since we commenced to nail these falsehoods, we have had to write some 60 letters to different papers, all bearing directly or indirectly upon the one point-wages. Immediately the Act of last session came into, force, we were recipients of a letter from the Flaxmillers’ Association, requesting us to join them in an application to the Court for a revision of the Award. We are not in a position to state it as a fact, but we suggest that the erroneous statements to which we have already referred were the first step towards preparing public opinion for the fight which the Association knew would take place upon this issue. After considerable correspondence, the representatives of the Association met your delegates in a socalled conference at Foxtou, and at a special general meeting called lor the week following, it was unanimously decided that the Union would not apply for a revision of the Award, in which case we were informed the Association would do so alone. —Clause 56royalty or wagesIn the course of the, previously mentioned newspaper correspondence, much was made of the statement by employers that it was the wages alone which were crippling the industry, and we were compelled to bring rebutting evidence to show that this was not the fact, whereupon we touched upon the question of royalties. At the special meeting previously referred to, it was decided to send a deputation to the Hon. A. W. Hogg, Minister for Labour, and ask for a Royal Commission into the whole industry, royalties, wages, methods of working. How much this would be to our advantage is best shown by the determined opposition of the Association to it. A full report of this deputation and of the facts they laid before the Minister, will be found in the copy of the Manawatu Herald, which is sent herewith to the delegate at your mill. We would make a special appeal to all our members to read the statements contained therein, and see for themselves how necessary it is that we should be absolutely united on this question. WHICH SHALL COME DOWN ? That is the question with which we are faced at the present moment, whether we are going to see the work of the last couple of years undone in as many months, for the benefit of a clique of disappointed and unscrupulous land speculators, or whether, by preserving an unbroken front, we are going to hang on to the living wage awarded to us by the Court ? Your Committee fully realises how hard it is to keep the idea of unification constantly in view amongst the members of a Union who are as scattered as ours are. But they want each individual member to keep this thought screwed right in at the back of his head. The Union has got its back against the wall of the Arbitration Court, and the Association is trying to get behind it. The time has gone past for a policy of polite indifference. It’s a matter of “root h og or die,” and we must hang together, unless we want the Association to be able to remark a la Johnson, “We thought the Union was an infighter.” WHAT YO.UR COMMITTEE WANT. First, and above all, we want criticism. Do you think we are doing the right thing ? Drop us a note and say so. Do you think we’re doing it perhaps the wrong way ? Bear in mind that a letter saying so will set us thinking. Any old piece of paper and pencil will do —don’t put it off because yoft’ve npt got pen and ink. prowl as much as you possibly pan, praise as much as you like, give us as much work as you like —that’s what we’re after. You’ve got a Sepretary whose loyalty to the Union only equalled by his papacity for hard work, you’ve got 3. pommittee that plapps the wholp of its spare time at your disposal, you’ve got the best and most logical cause that an Industrial Union ever fought for. Now its up to you.

Let’s hear from you. Also don’t forget to keep your eyes open for any flax news in the paper. It’s not much trouble when you’re looking what weight Roosevelt is carrying in the Cup, just to run your eye over the rest of the paper and cut out anything bearing on flax, and try to work up the luke-warm members to a little gentle bubble of enthusiasm. Don’t miss any new man that’s likely to be a member. On the other hand, don’t be poking Union into him morning, noon, and night, till he’s sick of the sound of it. One word at the right moment is worth twenty at the" wrong. Pick your time to talk to the new man, and then sheet it right home. — (Signed) President, G. S. Whibly ; VicePresident, A. Sylva ; Treasurer, 11, A. Hussey ; Secretary, Percy T. Robinson ; Trustees, A. W. Hudson and O. Ruffell ; Management Committee, R. Johnstone, R. H. Dalhousie, W. J-. Jamieson and 0. Snertinge.