EMPLOYERS' FEDERATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 116, 24 August 1910, Page 8

EMPLOYERS' FEDERATION.

PRESIDENT'S REMARKS.

PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS.

By I'eJegraph.—Press Association, Auckland, Last Night. "Outside the difficulties that tlie employer has to contend against by the harrassipg labour laws forceu uyua *rm by a paternal government," said Mr. D. Goldie in the course of his presidential speech at the annual meeting ot die l Auckland Employers' Federation ithis afternoon, "there is the further difl'i-' culty created iby his employees, who, inj many instances throughout the Dominion are showing a growing tendency to re-« strict the outpuj. It is a fact that many employees rarely give a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. Whenever men possessed of grit and determination made an effort to push their work ahead they were immediately told by certain of their co-workers to go easy, otherwise it would be un- | pleasant for them. Outside of those who j oan, but will not, give a fair day's work | for a fair day's pay, is another class of | workers —those who cannot 1 earn the minimum wage from want of ability, lack of energy j or because old age and decrepitude have come upon Uieic. 'j..ie labour laws press very cruelly upon | such. Hundreds of tiiem •>. oreed : out of employment and into poverty, j because one main plank in the Labour | platform is preference to unionists. I Awards carrying this clause, it is said, ! and justly so too, become labour trusts. A first-class artisan can 011 account of. ! his ability command employment anywhere, and yet he is compelled to join a union or be debarred from working, !: and so often finds himself working side Iby side with an incompetent worKer ' who draws the same wages as jumrclf, lit has been suggested that a clause j might very well be added to our Arbi- | tration Act that would provide for the compulsory grading of workers, who might be divided into three classes, viz., first-class (thoroughly competent), sec- ' ond-class (not fully competent),' third- : class (decrepit workers)."