case, the Premier expressed himself as being satisfied that there could not be a contented service as long as the cause for the dissatisfaction remained, and undertook to meet the City Council and impress upon it the advisability of removing the cause of the strike from contact with the members of the Union. Under pressure, this course was agreed to by the Council, and an agreement signed, embodying the conditions agreed to.
The combined unions had issued an ultimatum to the City Council that unless an agreement was reached by 12 noon on a certain Monday a general strike would be declared in Wellington. The atmosphere was electrical, and as the fatal hour came nearer and nearer, citizens began to flood the streets, and from beyond the Town Hall and along Cuba Street to Manners street, a dense crowd had congregated. At 11.45 the Premier visited the Trades Hall, coming direct from the City Council meeting with proposals for a settlement. I have often wondered since whether the threatened general strike would really have taken place had negotiations proved unavailing.
“TO HELL WITH AGREEMENTS”
During the early part of 1912 a controversy took place on the subject of industrial agreements that attracted very wide attention. This controversy was waged around the question whether or not a union signing an agreement with the employers was, by that act, to refrain from assisting in any industrial struggle during its currency. A section of the Federation imagined that once a union entered into an agreement with a group of employers this action
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