SLAUGHTERMEN'S STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 255, 18 March 1913, Page 5

SLAUGHTERMEN'S STRIKE

KEGISTEATIOX OF XEW UNION.

ARBITRATION COURT DECISION.

% Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, last Sight. The Arbitration Court to-day filed its decision in the appeal lodged by the xVgalmrunga Slaughtermen's Union against the refusal of the Registrar to grant it registration on the ground that members could conveniently become members of the existing Wellington Slaughtermen's Union. It can scarcely be suggested, said Mr. Justice Sim, in the course of the Court's decision, that there is any substantial diversity of interest between the two unions. Each exists, it may be assumed, in order to obtain for its member* the most favorable conditions of employment, and the main point of difference between the two is as to the best means to be adopted for attaining this end. We think, therefore, that the union is not entitled to succeed on this ground. The question then is, whether the appellant has established any other substantial reason for obtaining separate registration. The appellant comprises a lar«e majority of the workers who are now engaged in the work of slaughtering in the district. Of the slaughtermen nowengaged at the works at Ngahauran«a and Petone, only three are members of the Wellington Union. All the rest are members of the appellant union, which has made an agreement with the Wellington Meat Companies as to waoes and other conditions of employment, and if it obtains registration, is willing to have the terms agreed upon embodied in an industrial agreement or an award The appellant union appears, therefore to he desirous of obtaining registration under the Arbitration Act in "order to take advantage of the prevision of that Act. The Wellington Union, on the other hand, has not shown any sue'* desire. It cancelled its registration under the act in January last, in order to get rid of an .industrial agreement made in May, 1900, im A in order that, on the expiry of the term of that agreement, its members might engage in a strike without incurring any penalty. It made no attempt before cancellation of its registration to have the. dispute with the meat companies settled under the provisions of the Act. nor did it make any such attempt after it had a«ain obtained registration, on February 4.° In these circumstances, the reasonable inference to he drawn is that the Wellington Union obtained its new registration, not for the purpose of making use of the machinery of the Act to settle its dispute, hut for the purpose of blocking, if possible, the registration of any other Slaughtermen's Union. The object of the Arbitration Act is to provide for the peaceful settlement of all industrial disputes by the machinery of conciliation and arbitration, and it would be intolerable if the existence of a union which has played fast and loose with the arbitration system, as the Wellington Union has done, should bar the registration of another union, the members of which have a bona fide desire to use the machinery of the Act. To hold that to be tlje position would enable the machinery of the Act to be used for the very purpose of defeating flic fundamental object of the Act, viz., to secure settlement of disputes bv conciliation and arbitration. The slaughtermen should not he forced, we think, to accept the alternative of joining the Wellington Union or of heing deprived of the benefits of conciliation and arbitration. There is the further objection that, under its rules, the Wellington Union is in effect a close corporation. Membership can only be obtained on proving- to the satisfaction of the excutive that the applicant is a suitable, per- ! son to become a member 'thereof. "It is difficult to believe that members of the appellant union would be regarded by the executive of the Wellington Union as persons suitable to become members thereof, and the evidence called-by the appellant union goes to show that there is ill-feeling towards the members of that union on the part of some, at least, of the members of the Wellington Union. We think, therefore, .that for these reasons, the Wellington Union is not a union to which members of the appellant union can conveniently belong, and that the appellant is entitled to succeed in its appeal. The Court reports to the Registrar that, after making full enquiry, in its opinion the "Registrar's refusal to register the appellant union should be waived. Mr. Cullnngh, the employees' representative in the court, does not concur in this judgment. He thinks that members of the appellant union can conveniently belong to the Wellington Union." '