LABOUR’S DEMANDS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20261, 2 August 1937, Page 3

LABOUR’S DEMANDS.

NEED FOR BTATEBMANBHIP. RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS. In a broad-cast address In the United States Mr Edward F. McGrady, Assist-ant-Secretary of Labour, asked: — "Will Labour ever be satisfied? The answer Is that the wants of labour vary from time to time. Once It had the status of serfs and asked for liberty. After a long struggle freedom was secured, then It asked for wages. Later It asked for the right of organisation. Then came the request for shorter hours, better working conditions and the right to have Its organisations recognised. "Reforms came, but they came painfully slow. It was open season at all times in some industries on labour leaders and agitators. Many employers as a condition of employment compelled the workers to sign contracts stating they had not Joined and would not Join any labour union. "lOpponents of organised labour resorted lo many different types of opposition to prevent unionising their plants and to resist the demands of their workers. Recently before a Senate Investigating Committee, sworn testimony revealed that some employers invested millions of dollars in creating industrial spy systems within and outside the plants to prevent their employees from Joining unions of their own choosing. "If peace and good will are to he established and maintained anions those associated with the industrial life of the nation, it is high time that they sheathe their swords and think in terms of co-operation, understanding and mutuality. What Is Involved. "This involves the complete recognition of the rights of all who constitute the human force of Industry. There can be no responsible relationship where one industrial group attempts to deny to another group the exercise of a legal or a moral right. "The President and the Congress made an attempt to stabilise and protect botli industry and labour by creating for the first time in this country what might be called a national labour policy. They passed . . . the Wagner Labour Act. "Labour is given the right to organise freely and the right to bargain through representatives of its own choosing on wages, hours, and working conditions: It will have to assume I Hie responsibility of discipline among j its members, sucredness of contract, efilciencj <>r production, and diminution or waste, out of which Is bound j to develop an Intelligent and co oper i "With each side recognising Iho full j rights or the other and respecting ! those rights, benefits and advantages 1 will come to industry, to the workers, and lo the general public, all of | which will enrich the entire nation. ■ 1 have been reassured over .qpl over again by the leaders of the American trade union movement the it given an opportunity they are ready

to assume these obligations In full. ‘The time has arrived for the leaders of both industry and labour to demonstrate their statesmanship. Tho people of the nation are watching and waiting."