TRADES UNIONS.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 224, 18 December 1897, Page 2

TRADES UNIONS.

London, December 15. In the action Allen versus Flood, the Houso of Lords allowed the appeal with costs. This was a case in which two workmen, Flood and Taylor, recovered damages from Allen, the London delegate of the Boilermakers' Union. Some dispute arose between the shipwrights and boilermakers as to the limits of their respective work. Both Flood and Taylor, as shipwrights, were discovered to hare done ironwork in another yard. Allen informed the manager ef the Glengall Iron Company that if the two men were not discharged the ofher men would strike. The men were discharged, and took action against Allen. The jury awarded a verdict for the plaintiffs, which the Court of Appeal subiequently confirmed.

In delivering the present judgment Lords Halsbury, Ashbourne, and Morris upheld the Court of Appeal, but Lords Herschell, Watson, MacNaghten, Shand, Davey and James of Hereford reversed the decision of the Courts below. Lord Herschell held that the act of Allen was prima facie a lawful one, and not unlawful or actionable on account of the motives dictating it. Lord MacNaghten said the decision did not impair the law relating to oppressive combination and boycotting. The Standard remarks that the decision, is a severe blow struck at a workman's individual liberty of action, and is the most important militant trades unionism has ever wrested from a legal tribunal.