TRADES AND LABOUR CONFERENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9145, 22 July 1908, Page 5

TRADES AND LABOUR CONFERENCE.

a '■'■' BT TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, July 21. The Trades and Labour Conference passed a resolution affirming the need for the statutory limitation of working hours to forty-four per week. Mr J. Alsweiler (Invercargill) moved that the Arbitration Act be amended to provide that, where the necessity occurs of discharging hands in any industry under an award, the employees may demand a ballot to decide which of their number shall be discharged , Mr A. H. Cooper (Wellington) moved, as an amendment, that section 108 of the -Act be amended to provide that the onus be placed on an employer to prove that an employee had been discharged for some legitimate cause.

The amendment was carried. Mr Long (Auckland) moved that, in the opinion of this Conference, preference to unionists shall be jCompulsory, and not at the discretion of the Arbitration Court, as the capjricious withholding of the preference clause from such unions as the Seamens, Tramways and Carters Unions, cause the workers to lose faith in the administration of the Arbitration Act. A good deal of discussion arose as to whether preference to unions should, "be statutory and unconditional, and a motion wan moved to have these words embodied in Mr Long's motion. It was finally decided that the words "unconditional and compulsory" should not be included, preference only to be statutory. The motion in the amended form was carried.