AUCKLAND LABOR TROUBLES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 211, 5 March 1912, Page 5

AUCKLAND LABOR TROUBLES

LABORERS PROTEST AGAINST COERCIVE TACTICS. / By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Monday. A meeting of the General Laborers' Union, to consider the refusal of local bodies and employers to confer with the executive, was held in the Opera House yesterday. The building was crowded. Mr. P. Fraser, president of the Laborers' Union, who presided, said that the employers had made up their minds deliberately to reject all overtures, and declared that the laborers in Auckland were the worst paid in New Zealand. The Gity Council was to offer its men 8d a day on condition that they withdraw from the union. Thus local bodies we're trying to buy the bodies and souls of the men for 8d a day. Mr. Parry, president 'of the union, ridiculed the refusal of the Mayor to debate the position. "To Hades;" he said, "with the dignity of the Mayor." In a trouble of this kind they had a rijfht to a fair hearing, but this was refused. He challenged the Mayor to say he knew nothing <of the report that the organiser had been through the King Country and had secured the promises of 300 farmers to come to Auckland in the event of trouble.

Mr. Withy, the president of the Federation of Labor, said a strike was the last resort, hut if the gloves were taken off, no mercy would be shown or asked. The following motion was unanimously adopted: "That this meeting of citizens of Auckland protest against the coercive tactics of the City Council and other public bodies of Auckland in refusing to discuss working conditions with the General Laborers' Union, and condemns the action of the Mayor and councillors in ■allying themselves with the employing class against organised labor, and calls upon them to place the public interests paramount, and help to avoid an industrial trouble."

CITY COUNCIL GRANTS INCREASE. A STATEMENT DENIED. Auckland, Last Night. The City Council met to-night and decided upon a general increase in wages to its laborers amounting to £4OOO a year. A conference of 33 representatives of local bodies and contractors met in conference to-night and, in view of the action taken by the City Council,- decided that it was unnecessary to hear the deputation from the Federation of Labor. The schedule of wages prepared by the Council was considered, and it was decided to again consider it at a meeting of local bodies on Wednesday. The Mayor of Auckland denies the statement that nn organiser had recently been sent through the King Country and secured promise of assistance from farmers in the event of trouble.