MEN DISMISSED.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 300, 1 December 1936, Page 5

MEN DISMISSED.

Non-Unionists On Public Works. Wellington, Nov. 3(1. Eight men, part of a complement of 200 working on the Haywards-Pahau-taijui deviation, were dismissed by the Public Works Department to-day for failing to join the union. The men state that they have been given insufficient time to pay the union fee of £l, and that they agreed to pay the amount in instalments of 5/1 a week, the money to be deducted from their weekly payments. Mr. A. Cook, general secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, states that the men were given, with the others, the usual month to pay the fees, at the end of which time they sought and were given an extra 11 days’ grace. Ten weeks had elapsed since the men started work, and their workmates refused to work any longer with non-unionists. The climax was reached at the week-end when a definite undertaking was required by the men on the job that the others would become unionists. Altogether 20 men .are concerned. All but eight have paid their fees and joined the union, which then had no alternative but to require the Public Works Department to dismiss the other men, which was done to-day. The department states that the dispute does not concern it. The men are required by the regulations to become unionists, and if the department is notified that any non-unionists are working on the job it has no alternative but to dismiss them.