THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9132, 3 July 1908, Page 5

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

BY TELE3KAPH —fKESJS ASSOCIATION . WELLINGTON, July 2. The Waterside Workers' Conference spent to-day's sitting in discussing suggested amendments to the Arbitration Act. It was resolved to support an amendment t:i. provide that Conciliation Boards shall be coinpossd of one member from either party appointed as at present, and that unions taking disputes to the Boards shall have the right to add two assessors as required; also, that the Conference opposes any restriction in the right of the unions to appoint any assessors they please. Among other recommendations the more important are that the appointment of any officer or any member of a committee of management of a union being purely a matter of internal management should be left entirely to the Union to decide as it pleases; that the Conference affirms fie principle that the Statute law should be amended to provide that all agreements and awards shall provide for 'straightout ])reference to unionists. The Wellington Trades and Labour Council, to-night adopted a lengthy manifesto dealing with Dr. Finulay's receipt speeches on the Arbitration Ac ? t. The manifesto defends the Conciliation Boards, and advocates the extension of their powers. Elaborate figures are auoted to support the argument that wages have increased apart from the Arbitration Court. "We want the Act," says, the manifesto, "but we want it as originally conceived hy the framer with, of course, such machinery amendments as experience has shown are essential in the main. The principle of the Act now allows of a triple method, of settling industrial disputes. The failure of the present Act is due to the fact that employers have designedly ignored the Board, and relied on the Court. We urge such legislation as will ensure a finality to the decisions of the Conciliation Board. We urge the suggested machinery amendments of the Trades Conference to facilitate the general working of the Act. We submit tha*; not by the Act alone will the workers olf the Dominion reach their goal. The conotitution of the Court with its legal encumbrances and formulae and the unconscious bias of its president make the odds two to one against the workers every time. The Court has, of late, in addition to its failure to substantially improve the industrial condition of worker?, attempted to usurp the power of the Legislature, and each attempt has been with the object of depriving the workers of constitutional rights already granted. We, for the time being, advise the workers to adhere to the principle as an improved method of settling industrial disputes. Conciliation has always been advocated by the workers, and we again urge the importance o.Cit. Only as a last resource should the Court, in our opinion, be resorted to."