Auckland Trades Council and Waihi.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 74, 9 August 1912, Page 4

Auckland Trades Council and Waihi.

TJip Auckland District Council of the United Labor Party (in which Ih-u Auckland Trades Council was recently merged) lias decided that ; 'it could not recommend Australian unions to subscribe- to the strike fund, because trouble in Wuihi was not a Labor di ,, ,! putt , , but was an attempt by a ,'juciy which had adopted the- tenets of the I.W.W. to intimidate a body of workers who wished to register the Conciliation and ArbitratioiyAct." A communication tfo this effect has 'been forwarded ty'fa.*, Sydney Trades Council, with a request that it should be circulated aftiong Australian unions. Majestic w/ity of Unity Party! The A.B'C. of the U.L.P. comt \>ptV®rS.QMc 11 unions out of the 50 or more industrial organisations of the district, 'md is the quixotic combination whicn backed the feudalists Massey candidates at the elections and subsequently waited upon Mr. Mfissey to offer congratulations upon his success! The Auckland Council will not inform the Sydney Council of these facts, nor of its moving heaven and earth to put in anti-Labnritp Parr ns Mayor, notwithstanding that Parr as civic head had combined with the employers to smash a militant and bona fide union of general and that siid general laborers were then testing the ballotbox as a iTifans of winning recognition, thus practising the very policy the Labor Party is forever asserting the Federation of Labor won't use and be saved. If the Australian unions knew the record of the Auckland Council they would lancrh to scorn the bare idea of asking it for advice, let alone following the advice. But such ns the advice is, lot us examine it for a few moments. "The trouble in "Wnvhi is not a Labor dispute," says this shady Council, also stating that the trouble is one of mitimidation. Now, the Auckland Council must know that altogether outside of the alleged intimidation the mine-owners have refused to make an agreement with the miners of AVaih.i unless the Arbitration Court is invoked, and aho that they have declared that the "popper" nv'iSt be worked in Waihi as at Reefton. And the -Council should also know—fo"r would it presume to advise on a vital matter unless it understood the matter?—that in the background of the rupt'uro is the question cf contract. In parenthesis let it bo repeated for Australian information that the mineowners had themselves established the precedent of "round the I able" agreements and made supli an ngreompnt with the 'Union ; further, that ihe min-e-otvners Ji::d declined to recognise co-operative contracting — preferring competitive contracting—but the men hud thcmselyves introduced it- successfully and thus enraged their dividondmongering employers. At all events, here arc three additional factors of the Waihi trouble which demonstrate that it is "a Labor dispute" and also that ilie Auckland Council is shabby enough to sink to tacit' dishonesty in its advice in the desire to hurt the Federation of Labor and uphold scabbcry. Wo need not here, enter into the. significance of these additional factors, nor need wo hove dwell upon tlio signi- rcaiiM ov the inter-uniuii. aspect of tho situation. It has all been made as plain a , -; winter snow iui I lie mountain heights. If Australian uiu..-'.;.-; Uk-.- bo bo i'riihtfiied by tlie spectre of the I.W.W. that is their cowardice or stupidity—siill they will probably know that the Fed-

oration of Labor is acting off its rr.ui bat, and is as distinctive an organisation, and as autonomous a one, as any of the federations of Australia. As to the charge of intimidation, what of the effort fit inumidiitior. of a fraction of a union 7inde;i;:irid?d!y breaking away from that union ami seeking to force 1500 more in number than themselves to rat upon actions legally a.,d a.--. lrp;:!iy cmi-.p' . Wo refer to t'.'.o m-if; ■{ i\) i-iiuclh-tioa of registration under the C-. r,v. r . A. Act, in winch tho. i';.iction participate':! and which curadiation had to be carried by an absolute majority vote of all the unioniMs of Yfailn as by statute provided; C 2) entoring into ;ui nc:rre;r,enh v.-ith the mine-owners whereby t \\ a;hi Workers' T'nio:i —omb:v >c\nz all crafts in ihe iiiduriry and thus establishing an industrial union in the -"al sens" — rd sole recognition of the union as representative of miners, erpne-drivers. firemen and all mine workers. It was only the other week that even Billy Hucjhos, rvf.li.ll.. was complainin.q of the intimidation of the faction. "Whatever "Wollinston and Auckland Trades Couiv.'iln may say, and Christeburch Council be silent about—and whatever the- Sydney Trades Council may do to shift its responsibilities— nothing shall slur or blur the fact that as against the organised mine-owners of New Zealand the gold-miners of the two chief centres were compelled to fitrht for their organisation, their unionism and their principles. They fcugbt in the manner and spirit of unfonism wherever unionism his iinrl to fH>t th« foes of unionism, and they aro fighting in New Zealand at this hour the same sort of fight by which Australian unionism received 't.i baptism of iire and emerged unconquerable.