THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9144, 21 July 1908, Page 6

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

SOME SEVERE CRITICISM. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. • WELLINGTON, July 20. The Arbitration Act and Judge Sim came in for some severe critic-to-day's sitting of the Trades' and Labour Conference. The discussion arose on a motion by Mr E. J. Carey (Wellington) to add the following clause to the executive's report:—During the past year the Denniston miners, the Blackball miners, the Auckland tramway men. the Wellington bakers, and one or two other smaller organisations have found 1 , it necessary to supplement their appeals to the Court by a further reliance on their industrial combinations to secure more , equitable industrial conditions than were granted by the Court. We are pleased to note that all these after effects have been or are j likely to prove successful. The after efforts have all had the backI ing up of public opinion, and I were all rendered necessary by the j vicious policy of victimisation folI lowed by some of the employers or by the palpably unjust terms of the awards or by the substitution of Arbitration Court law for Statute i law. We desire to place on record our recognition of the generous rei sponae of the Dominion unionists to the appeal of the Blackball miners for financial assistance, and hope that a similar response will be made to the appeal by the Trades' Council on behalf of the Wellington bakers. We consider the contribution to Blackball a splendid manifestation of the fact that there is still a good deal of the old spirit of unionism latent in the ranks of the New Zealand Trades' Unions.'* In moving this clause Mr Carey aaid that reference should be made to the recent trouble with the operative bakers that had arisen in Wellington. The Court had brought it on, and the men had nothing left them but to take up the attitude they had assumed. Mr W. H. Westbrooke said that the Factory Act had given the men a 48 hours week, and the Arbitraton Court had awarded 51 hours. New Zealand had always been looked upon as a4B hours country, and it was not right that an extra three hours shojld be tacked on. The men had been loyal to the award in the past, and altogether they had appealed three times. They had found there was no hope of getting better or just conditions. Why should bakers have to work longer than any other class of tradesmen? In other districts the operative bakers had been awarded 48 hours, and no man could say it took longer to work bread in Wellington than elsewhere. The present awaid was really three awards in one. Already three awards had been given for the Wellington province. It was unjust. The bakers action was justified, and he believed the other unions mentioned in the motion were justified in their action also. Mr G. H. Hickey (Blackball) made an attack on the judgment of the Arbitration Court in reference to the j Blackball strike. The workers should be protected, he said, but they were not. If they were not protected by Statute law they should have the liberty to protect themselves with their fellow workers. According to Judge Sim the workers had no protection whatever. They could see the absolute futility of the Arbitration Court when it came to the question of the workers wanting their rights. It was time the workers took a definite stand in regard to the Act. He had no respect for an Act that did not give him protection, and the same thing would apply to the rest of the workers. The Act only allowed the employers to suit their own purposes. It meant victimisation of the men. One of the present delegates had been told by his employer that his place would be filled by the time he was ready to return to work. This was a nice position to be in when the Government encouraged these conferences and gave free passes on the railway to delegates to attend them. "I chink it is high time," he concluded, "that we, \as workers, took some definite action to protect ourselves. Are we to be made buffets of by the employers at their own sweet will?" The debate will be resumed in the morning.