Arapuni Secession Censured by the Alliance of Labour

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 82, 28 June 1927, Page 13

Arapuni Secession Censured by the Alliance of Labour

SECRETARY’S OUTSPOKEN CRITICISM

THE decision of 600 men on the Arapuni works to secede from the New Zealand Workers' Union prompted Mr. Gavinstone, secretary to the Alliance of Labour, with which the New Zealand Workers’ Union is joined, to give the following statement from the point of view of the Alliance of Labour to a SUN reporter this morning.

opinion of the Alliance of Labour is that the first essential of good unionism is complete union. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., Ltd., treat all the men on the job as workers and only united as workers can the men there treat with the company. A BACKWARD MOVE

“It’s difficult to conceive the men taking the step to dissociate themselves from the New Zealand Workers’ Union. No matter what their grievance is, organisation cannot be improved by disintegration. This must be said for the New Zealand Workers’ Union, it has gone out and organised the construction workers on the hydro-electric works in New Zealand and covered them all with agreements, including one with the Public Works Department, and it has included in its organisation all trades and occupations. It was only this form of organisation that made it possible to have a hold-up at Arapuni. “If the Arapuni men now decide to return to the old form of craft unions in which the carpenters belong to the carpenters' union, the labourers to the labourers’, the miners to the miners’, the drivers to the drivers’, and so on, they will find themselves a powerless and impotent force on Arapuni or any other work. “Anyone who knew the conditions in construction works camps 20 years ago will recognise the wonderful improvement in conditions that has been gained for the men.

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS “I was first president of the Construction Workers' Federation in 1914, and that was the first occasion on which the union was given official recognition by the Government and the contractors. Before that there were branches at Gisborne, Otira, and other works all struggling to gain recognition. There was no housing, sanitation, or bathing, no commisariat arrangements. Conditions to-day are a distinct contrast and much of the improvement is due to the New Zealand Workers’ Union since the Construction Workers’ Federation became a component part of it. It has been said that these men lose on their union tickets when they leave the job, but their New Zealand Workers’ Union ticket admits them to the Freezing Workers' Union, the Timber Workers', the Shearing, Mustering, Packing and Droving, Threshing Mill and Harvest Field Unions, and any Public Works and hydro-electric works in New'Zealand. “The New Zealand Workers’ Union, with 10,000 members, should not be implicated by 600 men at Arapuni.” Mr. R. F. Barter, secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in response to an invitation, will go to Arapuni to-morrow. He will try to get a conference with the contractors and will advocate the extension of present awards to cover his men. Mr. J. Sutherland, secretary of the General Labourers’ Union, will also go to Arapuni to-morrow.