THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1907. THE LAND OF NO STRIKES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8361, 18 February 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1907. THE LAND OF NO STRIKES.

Many a prominent politician, on more than one occasion, has declared that there were no strikes in New Zealand, and has suggested that their occurrence was an impossibility owing to the system prevailing in this country for dealing with industrial disputes. In the outside world the impression' certainly has been created that we apply an ideal principle to the capital and labour problem, and, speaking generally, the Conciliation and Arbitration Act has been worked successfully, because both employers and employees have been willing to jabide by the awards made under the Act. It is true that the Act has been applied in prosperous times, and the smoothness with 'which it has been worked must, in some measure, be attributed to the unprecedented prosperity that we are enjoying. The slaughtermen's "strike," therefore,'" comes as a very decided shock, and the influence that the slaughtermen create by their action may have a far-reaching and considerable effect on the permanency of tha arbitration principle in industrial disputes. The men say they are not on strike—they have simply "knocked-off" Work, and the t press, no doubt, by way of showing their knowledge of the explanation, quotes the word "strike," when

alluding to the trouble, though what difference there is between a quoted strike and one unquoted we do not profess to understand. We will, however, accept the slaughtermen's explanation that a large number of them, quite independently of each other, have, by a curious coincidence, ceased at the same time to follow their ordinary avocation. Can such an action be deemed fair and reasonable from any point of view? The present is, or should be, a very busy time at the slaughteryards—such a time, curiously enough, as workmen wishing to go on strike might be expected to select —the employers have not only offered to increase the rate ofvpay, but have, also, offered, should the Arbitration Court decide that the employers' offer is not sufficient remuneration, to pay from the present time whatever rate of pay the Court may award. The employers, in this instance, are certainly displaying a spirit of fairness and patience that might well be copied by their employees. , The slaughtermen, who have ceased work, were working under an award, and the freezing companies had every] right to expect that they would continue to do so until another award was made. The men, by their action, have brought loss upon a number of people, who may be described as]utterly "innocent victims, "and there is'not the slightest justification for their conduct. Were there no Arbitration Court in existence the position would be entirely different. An important question, however, that naturally arises is this —will the action of the slaughtermen be regarded as a precedent to be followed by other employees, who, being dissatisfied with the award under which they are working, wish to cease work? The only justification for the existence of the Abritration Act is that employees are prepared to abidejfaithfully by the awards of the Court. If employees, whenever they wish, are going to ignore the awards of the Court, then the Act should be repealed. On the whole, awards that have given satisfaction to employees have been the order of the day •up to the present—the greatest test of the Act will come when awards unsatisfactory to employees are made, and a certain number of such awards are, we think, in* evitable. Union agitators will never be satisfied with any award—not on this side of Heaven, at any rate.