LABOR CRISIS.
ENGINEERING LOCK-OUT. DEBATE IN HOUSE. INTERVENTION URGED. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London. March 20. In the House of Commons, Mr. Clynes moved the adjournment to raise the question of the engineering lock-out ■with the object of Inducing the Government to take steps to terminate the dispute. The lock-out was an astonishing aggression on the part of the employers. He condemned their action in refusing to consult the men regarding ■working overtime as autocratic. Workmen could not longer allow capital the sole right of the conduct of workshops. It opened a new ere of undisputed authority on the part of the employers. Industry without restraint meant enslavement. Received March 21, 5.5 p.m. London, March 20. Continuing his speech. Mr. Clynes said it could be averred that the greatest mistake made by the Government •was their failure to see that the Trade Union balances were conducted honestly. Mr. Gould maintained that the men’s claims distinctly interfered with the managerial rights of employers. Their efforts to revive trade were being killed by the intolerable conditions the men sought to impose. The ballot taken was a travesty. Fifty thousand men determined whether 380,000 were to work or not. Mr. Robert Young urged that they should not darken the debate with references to Soviet control of workshops. If some engineers were Bolsheviks, the employers and Parliament were responsible. Every promise to me has been repudiated. The natural objection to overtime was due to the fact that thousands of engineers were unemployed. Mr. Austin Hopkinson said it was ludicrous for members of the Employers’ Federation to claim managerial functions when they abdicated same by joining the federation. Only employe™ outside the federation, like himself, really had the control of their own works. He did not think the Industrial Court could usefully decide the question of overtime, which no employers wanted if it was avoidable in any way. MR. MACNAMARA’S REPLY. APPEAL 2TO COMPOSE DIFFERENCES. Mr. Macnamara. replying, said he was profoundly disappointed that - his efforts at mediation were unsuccessful. Since January there had been a reduction of 152,000 in the unemployed, but there were still 1,792,000 without work. It was impossible to put the Industrial Coarts Act into force while ballots were progressing in forty-seven trade unions. The unions themselves would have resented such an intervention if the employers had demanded it. He i appealed to both sides to compose their differences.
Sir Allan Smith, chairman of the managing committee of the Engineering Employers’ Federation, said the difficulty of the employers was that they had to deal with seventy-two trade unions. If the unions conceded the principle that the employers had the right to manage their factories, the employers would* be pleased to confer with the men regarding the manner in which managerial functions would operate. The employers did not want to smash the unions.
The motion was negatived by 162 to SO.
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Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1922, Page 5
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478LABOR CRISIS. Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1922, Page 5
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