DISGRUNTLED UNIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22985, 14 September 1936, Page 10

DISGRUNTLED UNIONS

IMPEDING GOVERNMENT PROGRESS APPEAL FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, Sept. 13. An appeal to trade unionists to uphold the Labour Government and not to put difficulties in its way was made by the Minister of Education (Mr P. Fraser) in an address to-night. The Minister said the Labor Party stood for the highest standard of living that could be secured at any particular time. “To those who have threatened all of things in a selfish, inconsiderate, and not understanding way,” declared Mr Fraser, “ to those who have threatened to throw industry out of gear because they have not got just what they want, I say that the 40-hour week is not mainly for the benefit of those in constant work, although we recognise the importance of leisure, but for the benefit of those who have not had a chance to work. The Government has promised that within the next two years it will introduce a national superannuation and health scheme which will abolish the fear of poverty from this Dominion for ever, but the Government and the trades unions cannot maintain what they have won unless the unions work in co-opera-tion with the Government they helped to elect. All that is needed is understanding, because no trades unionist wants to see the Labour Government crash, or what it has given him taken away—and there is a danger of that.” Recent legislation had given a new lease of life to trades unionism. The Government believed in trades union principles and trusted unionists’ common sense to use the opportunities given to build up their strength. Whether they would so use it remained to be seen. “ Not only trades unionism but democracy itself is at stake,” Mr Fraser continued. “ Therefore the message I would give is that if democracy fails in New Zealand it fails everywhere. If Labour fails because the workers fail to support it properly democracy will crash with it.” Mr Fraser told his hearers not to imagine that New Zealand was different from the rest of the world. “ There are forces,” he said, “ which, if the Labour Government failed, would step in and not bother about the ballot box or any of that sort of nonsense. A Labour Government must govern with the consent and help of the people. If it cannot enforce the law with their support it must abdicate unless it uses its’ power against the working people who elected it. That is an impossible position. But what is the alternative? To walk out and let our opponents in. “ I tell trades unionists frankly that they are making things impossible for the Labour Government. They say that they do not wish to embarrass it and then they proceed to do so. If a Government is made ridiculous it is not fit to govern. The Government is not going out. It is here to make industry go normally. I do not feel like appealing on a matter like this. The duty of a trades unionist, if he has any sense at all, is to see that industry is kept going to" enable the Labour Government to carry out its programme for abolishing poverty for ever. If we go from democracy to dictatorship the fault will lie with those thoughtless people who, for their own petty ends, endanger the whole fabric of Labour.”