AMENDMENT WANTED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 36, 11 February 1913, Page 4

AMENDMENT WANTED.

That the Conciliation and Arbitration Act needs amending is made plainly evident by the recent proceedings taken by those connected with the troubles in the meat industry. When the Act was first introduced .it was entitled “an Act to encourge the formation of industrial Unions and associations, and to facilitate the settlement of industrial disputes by conciliation.’' This is exactly what it has not done, and the slaughtermen’s dispute has disclosed a fatal weakness which certainly was never imagined. To avoid any risk of fines in the event of a strike and having no further use for the Act as a means of pressure on the employers, the unions of slaughtermen cancelled their registration under the Act. Having thus put themselves outside the reach of the law they ceased work and declined to submit themselves to arbitration. Now they are endeavouring to use the Act as a weapon against the employers and against the possible registration of free workers', and fearing that such workers may form a union with a view to bringing the dispute within the operations of the Court, the very men who cancelled their registration and went on strike hurriedly re-registered to prevent other slaughtermen who do not approve of their attitude being accepted for registration under the Act. The position is certainly farcical and instead of proving the beneficent measure it was intended the Arbitration Act is now apparently a means of allowing men to strike without penalty at law, and of preventing men who honestly desire the peaceful methods of arbitration from taking the only course by which they can obtain recognition in the Arbitration Court. The Act has been amended and patched up in mam ways, but it will certainly need furthei attention from Parliament at next scs sion.