To Carpenters and Others.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 41, 15 December 1911, Page 6

To Carpenters and Others.

By TOM BLOO:DWORTH..

. At the animal conference of the N.Z. Federated Builders' Association, hold in -Auckland on November 16 and following days, this resolution was passed: ' r That this conference approves of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and that the Court be amended by the appointment ol two experts to act as advisers, or by two. representatives elected for each trade; also that the Court be amended so as to allow of the term of awards being extended to five years; and that in the opinion of this meeting a legal gentleman should be appointed chairman of the Court." Now mark that, carpenters and men of the building trades! And pay special attention to the fact that the masters want awards to be made for five years! They want to have labor tied under an award that will be binding for five years. The reason they want that is because they know that awards are always made in their favour. If there was a possible chance of an award being made giving the advantage to labor then the masters wouldn t want awards to be binding for more than five minutes. Men -of the building trades, when will you follow the example set you by your masters and become federated r; Federated in your.- different trades you already are, but why are you not federated in your industry.-' \vhy is there not a building trade section to the Now Zealand Federation of Labor/ The Carpenters' Union extends to Britain and to America. We-are united in out craft. But, which is the more important : to have a common interest with the carpenter in America or to have a common int-er-esf with the bnc.£iayer arid the laborer who works on the same job with us? Of course, it is "■ood to br- united to th<? carpenters of America and England but our direct (interests are with the men we work with ln*e. . Twice in. the la-si few weeks has this fadi been brought'home to us in Auckland. First when the deadlock occurred 'in t'Ji« sliißgJe industry. had continued another -w<?ek, half , -the men

The Pleed of Closer Organisafion-

in the- building 'trade in Auckland would have been unemployed. We were forced to realise that the affair of the men who run the shingle boats was our affair. The second instance was in the recent strike of the general laborers. Luckily for us the men won their case without calling out all the laborers in the building trades, but had they done that, then within two weeks all the men in the building trades would have been idle. Carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers, painters —you would all have been idle, or you would have scabbed on the general laborers by doing their work. Men, this is your affair and the affair of your wives and children. The masters would bind you for five years, but who shall say that conditions will remain stationary for five years? No one will. Everyone knows that prices of food and clothing and house rent are continually rising. And in the face of this, will we submit to an award that will bind us for five or even three years ? Men, this is no time for awards — this is the time for organisation. Our present unions keep us divided, and therefore are obsolete. They must be brought up to date. The system of organising for benefits must go. The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and .Joiners has paid in. 50 years as unemployed benefit £1.345,005. Has that remedied the evils of unemployment? Not one bit. Other unions have dono the same thing. Carpenters have asked, for increased "wages under awards recently, and in not one case have they sot what they asked for. Why? Because. w.e are weak and divided, and because our power is taken out of, our hands by the Arbitration Act. Let us organise industrially. Let "us have that building trade section to the N.Z.F.L. within a war. And let us regain our freedom and by no means allow ourselves to be bound for five or three years. Men of; tlie feuildia-g trade, this-'.is. our airair. Let «« aw t© it!