PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8299, 30 November 1906, Page 5

PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS.

(To the Editor). Sir,—! sea by this morning's Age that you have honoured me with a leader in reply to my letter appearing in the same paDer. In the first place my letter was not so muuh intended ns a reply to your previous leader as to put employers' views on the preference question before your readers. I must still say that on again reading your first leader, the general impression left ou bay miud la the this article advo cates preference, otherwise why do you say: "After ail, why do the employers oppose preference to Unionists? J t would seem* almost thai: they do "so aa a matter of habit and are quite unable to help themselves, etc." J om pleased to find that Buch' was not your intention, and tbat we agree in the main point, i.e., complete unionism and classification of workers, but employers differ froiti labour unions in their method of arriving at that desirable consummation. Most employers would like to see a!l*workers members of unions, but they fomst join voluntarily from the oonviotion that by doing so they aro helping the cause of all men—not themselves .alone—and tbat tliey are raising their' own status by joining. But this oannot be so long as the' Labour leaders are extremists., On the other hand, the wish to force all workers to join thepb, regardless of tbeir personal opinions, before they nan obtain work. The makers of ihe Arbitration Act inserted a clause whioh prevents the registration of more than one union in any trade iu any industrial district; therefore the men who do not approve of the present unions,ara left no option*/they must eittier join orremain non-unionists ~tbdy cannot form a new union to suit their own views of what a union should be. These men are a large majority of the workers of the whole colony, and in the Wairarapa I do not think 1 am far'out in saying the majority would be about twenty to one. It is not frou! want of trying on the part of the unions that these men hold out, for 'have been sent to the district time and again to induce them to join. Ihe objection is to the unions themselves, not to unionism generally. Having, ; I think, accomplished < «iy object of puttiug before your readers the reasons wny employers oppose preference to unionists, I will not take up more of your valuable space arguments about union ism, which are Interminable, and thanking son for your oourtesy.—l am, etc.,

S. 15. WEIGHT, Seo. Wairarapa Employers'Assn. Masterton, November 29, 1306. (We may tay that y/e da no 1 ; sympathise with the employers' strenuous opposition to tlae preference to unionists proposal, but at the same time we do not think ..thai; employers should be coerced in jjtbo matter, and if Mr Wright assumes that we do be is not correct Wo i believe that it is possible for .the Labour Unions to attain their object without causing either hardship or iuconvenience to employers, Ed, W. A.)