of Employers. It was the first masters’ association to come under the Act. It was, and is still, the largest and most powerful body of master tradesmen in the colony, with the exception, of course, of the Federated Employers’ Association of New Zealand, which embraces all manner of trades.
The boot-making trade was the worst sufferer by the strikes and quarrels of the past, and there was much bad blood between the masters and the workers. According to a manifesto issued in connection with a strike at Auckland in 1894, and signed by delegates from the union and the masters, “during the past seven years the relation between manufacturers and workmen has been one of constant antagonism and dissatisfaction, engendering much suspicion, ill-feeling, and a strong sense of injustice on both sides, until at last some solution of the difficulty was felt to be a necessity, and its possibility was hailed with delight.”
In 1895, a “statement” under which the trade had been working was running out, and there were several differences of opinion, each side holding strongly to its own view of the position. For years the trade had never been free from trouble. The workers made demands at the most inconvenient times, and threatened to strike on the slightest provocation. In one city, a large boot-manufacturing firm in 1889 had its business thoroughly disorganised by a strike brought about on account of a change in the dinner-hour. It was not proposed to curtail the time allowed for dinner, but the hour was put further back in the day, and a strike took place. The whole policy was to strike or yield. Conciliatory measures were thrown to one side, until at last conciliation was not thought of and was not considered possible.
At that time, there was no federation among the employers, who were placed at the disadvantage of having to fight single-handed large and powerful unions. The position became so serious in 1891 that the boot-manufacturers throughout the colony federated, and then met the men on fair terms. The federation of the employers led to the adoption by them of a uniform statement of wages and conditions of labour. For a time the parties watched each other. Neither knew the
