PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS. It Gets a Bump.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 260, 24 June 1905, Page 6

PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS. It Gets a Bump.

A MAN is allowed the freedom of his own opinion, but m the colonies he must not exercise the freedom on the question of unionism — if he wants*a job Everybody wants a job. This being so\ everybody ought to< be a unionist That's what the unionist says Therefore a man with the freedom of his own opinions is free to starve if ho keeps on having opinions By joining a union a man is hall-marked as a capable worker A man who doesn't join a union, for reasons only known to himself, may be able to work the hall-marked man into a state of stupor, but. he's no good — he's not hall-marked. * * • TJnity and unionism are excellent things. Unionists are able to make demands, many of which are fan to employed and employer The unionist says that he, by co-opera-tion, has made the life of a working man livable, and raised not only the wages of the unionist, but the wages ot the non-tiniomst. But. the nonunionist's wages don't help him any if he cannot earn them because of the preference to the noble chap who has offered him a payable job that he won't permit him to take All this- is suggested by the judgment of the High Court in Sydney, where it appears master carters, when they wanted a man, had to give the union notice of their desire, so that a* unionist could get the job. Seemingly, it didn't matter that the master carter may have preferred a non-unionist because he might give a better return for his wages — the point is that the non-unionist ought to have joined the union, m order to share the benefits the unionist says he shares, whether or no, through the union's efforts When an employer has to humbly appeal to any organisation before ho can get some work done, the position becomes absolutely farcical, and the High Court of Australia, m deciding that an employer could employ anybody he saw fit, does no* injustice to unionism, but it metes out justice to the man who isn't a unionist, and who, despite lack of reasons for not joining, has a perfect moral righi to compete for any work that is going Any preference clause m any Arbitration Act is coeicion puie and simple. A non-unionist under it is unable to get work, the Arbitration Act being the means, therefore, of pauperising his family until he is willing to forego his freedom of opinion, and join a body with which he may not be able to harmonise There are many men m New Zealand — and particularly m Wellington — who refuse to join a union holding that their skill is sufficiently established without any necessity te protect themselves by unionism The highest paid mechanics in Wellington at the present time are the bricklayers Obviously, the grinding employer doesn't grind worth a cent in connection with bricklaying for the "brickies" have not yet shown any inclination to form a union Which gives one food fci thought in these days of industrial injustice and all the rest of it