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Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 11

SOLIDARITY AND ENTHUSIASM.

Review of the Trouble.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) The general laborers of Auckland are on striko against sub-contracting. The Union has repeatedly signified its opposition to this pernicious system of stib-contr acting. Repeated attempts have been made by the employers to introduce the system, and these attempts .have always been met* by solid opposition on the part of the Union. Men havo been. induced to take subcontracts, and always the Union has opposed their action. : - Frequent attempts have been made on the drainage works to introduce the system. Several times the Union has threatened to withdraw the men in order to cope with the evil,.but hitherto it has not been necessary to carry-the threat into execution. , \ Last week, however, it was discovered that sub-contracting was in vogue on one section of tho drainage works. Th© Union met and decided to withdraw tho men from this section. On Wednesday last this was done, the men coming out in response to the call as one man. Th© City Engineer was asked to make sub-contracting unallowable on the drainage works. He laid the matter before the Board, but th© Board took no action. On Thursday more men were called out, and responded to the call. A mass meeting was held, at which: the action of the executive was unanimously endorsed. Robert Semple arrived in Auckland, and addressed the men on Thursday morning. On Friday morning another mass meeting was held, at which, it was unanimously decided that tho executive of the Union, together with Robert Semple, should wait upon the Mayor and put the position plainly and clearly before him. This was done, and a.t a meeting held on Friday afternoon, the restilt of that conference was made known to the men. It was to tho effect that the Drainage Board would meet the executive on, Monday morning and would then arrive at a decision in the matter. At the time of writing, 600 men are out. The city destructor is closed down. The city quarry is also closed down. The drainage works are .at a standstill. The men are solid—determined to fight to a finish and. to win, realising that the life of the Union depends upon winning this fight. The City Council are alarmed. They cannot understand wihy men who are not directly employed on the drainage works should be making common cause with those who are.

The Press are squealing, making frantic appeals to the men'b "sense," etc., threatening them with all sorts of evils if they continue to stand out, against this contract system—which,' of course, the Press fails to see any evil in. The General Laborers' Union is perhaps the best union in .Auckland. It has demonstrated that it is a real live body, prepared to fight for justice for all its members. It is a part of the N.Z.F.L., and is free from Arbitration Court entanglements. It has a. live executive committee, and its officials are of the right sort. If it shall have won the fight before this appears in print, it will have earned the respect of unionism throughout the Dominion. And if the fight be still going on, it will be up to every unionist in the Dominion to help this union to demonstrate the fact that labor in New Zealand is at last awake and prepared to use its might in order to gain its rights and guard its principles from encroachment. —T.B. Auckland, Friday.