THE STRIKE BALLOT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2527, 9 January 1923, Page 2

THE STRIKE BALLOT.

EMPLOYERS NOT GREATLY CONCERNED. Thiil the employers are not at all perturbed by tile N.Z. Alliance of Labour strike ballot is proved by a statement which Mr B. L. Hammond, assistant-secretary of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation has supplied to the Press. “Employers generally are not greatly concerned over the possibility of a general strike,” Mr Hammond states. “Recollection of the shipping events of the past few weeks, the successful manner in which all services have been maintained, and the unfortunate position that the seamen are in to-day will no doubt cause workers to hesitate before voting themselves to the ranks of the unemployed. The time is long past when any section of Labour, in opposition to public opinion, can hold up trade and industry generally for any appreciable length of time. 1 cannot imagine that there is a Labour leader in the Dominion who would care to accept the responsibility of ordering a strike even though the same has been approved by ballot, for they realise as they must do, that the present, is a most inopportune time for a successful strike, even assuming any time to he opportune for such.

“The probability of the workers themselves desiring a strike is even more remote. Before giving up the substance for the shadow, workers will ask of themselves many questions, among them: What are the workers to gain by a strike, and at what sacrifice to themselves? Who if. capable o£ directing a strike? What unions are in a position to finance the strike and secure their members against poverty dining idleness? What will be the effect of ii general strike upon the cost ot living? Is the loyalty due by w<>rkenAo their unions paramount to what thev owe to their families and themselves ?

“For a strike on a large scale to be successful in any degree whatever, it must have the support and sympathy of the general public, and this is most unlikely, when the inevitable result of a strike will be to throw the Dominion back into the depression from which it is Uow emerging. A general strike A'ill spell the end of the Alliance of Labour, and render a severe blow to trades unionism and the leaders are not blind to the fact.’