CANTERBURY FARM LABORERS.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 45, 19 January 1912, Page 13

CANTERBURY FARM LABORERS.

A meeting of the Canterbury Farm Laborers' Union was held on the first Friday of the New' Year in the Trades Mall, Christchunh, Mr. L. Wilson in the chair. The first business before the meeting was the amalgamation with the Waimate. Workers' Union. Tin's matter has been hung up for some time and now that a ballot is to be taken, it is to be hoped that every member will see that his ballot pape'i is marked the right way, and being marked sent in. In' union lies strength, in federations and amalgamations as in the smaller and less powerful organisa tion s.

Considerable discussion, ttiok place in refereiK'" to the ease before tie Court. At a previous moctimg it was dc-rided to cite in the present pas© the SkecpoH ners' Union only, and should an award be made, to then ask the Court to iuld the fannejß outside the Sheepownors' Union. This the Court at onco intimated that it would not do, and advised that if the Union wished to get an award for workers other than niusterers and packers, it would have to cito each farmer separately in the first place. It being generally considered that Judge Sim does not intend to go back on his previous finding of "no award," his reputation as a judge, it seems, being bound up in that decision, the meeting decided to go on with the nuistiivccs , and packers' en so only, and trust to other methods to better the conditions of other classes of farm and station workers.

A resolution was passed favoring amalgamation with the general laborers until t!io Waimato amalgamation is complete. NothiJip; more than this can bo done, but as soon as one Rural Workers' Union covers the whole of Canterbury stops should be taken to complete the good, work by amalgamating the two bodies . .... The general laborers ha*e it in thoir power to make of all these unskilled workers the strongest TTnioii in New Zealand. Should it be their misfortune to be dragged into industrial strife, the fa.nn workers would be. a tower of strength ; uneducated and unorganised right on the flank ot the firing line, they spell disaster, as the maritime workers found to their cost. The general laborers have the position, ami soon it is to be hoped they will have the opportunity to give to their fellow workers in the country that organisation that means i»di*strial and political victory.—C. ISAACSON.