TRADES AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 19

TRADES AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. This livening, October G—Bakers. Monday, October B—Painters, Grocers' Assistants. Tuesday,' October o—Storemen. Wednesday, October 10—Gas Employees. Thursday/October 11—Boilermakers, Plumbers' Educational. ■ _ . Friday, October 12—Brlckworkers, Curners. Saturday, October 13—Fellmongers' Committee. • ;..'•". . . . ■ <&j&&r LOCAL DOINGS. The- Rope.and Twine Workers' Union held its annual meeting on Thursday I last, when a report on the work of the year showed that work in this industry had been steady,, members being fully employed, with no unemployment threatening. The annual balance-sheet indicated a satisfactory position with regard to finances. Officers for the year were elected, and the meeting decided to hold a social for the members at an early date. . ■ Mr. R. F. Barter, secretary of the Auckland Amalgamated Engineering Trades Union this week left for Christchurch in connection with the motor mechanics' application for a new award, in which, it will be remembered, that no agreement was reached when the hearing took place in the South quite .recently.

This week the freezing workers' dispute came before the Court at Auckland, when the judge commented on the fact that not one of the many clauses in the application had been settled in conciliation. If practical men on both sides could not come to some agreement on points of a highly technical nature, it was hot a fair thing to ask the Court, not versed in the requirements of the trade, to give an award that would be anywhere near satisfactory to either party, and he ordered the parties into conference, with the result that several point 3 were agreed on, after which the dispute proceeded before the Court. Evidence was called ond both sides, after •which the Court reserved its" decision and left for the South the next day. The next sitting of the Court at Auckland has been fixed for December 10. The N.Z. Tramways Federation finished its annual conference at Auckland on Monday last, and the Southern delegates left for. their homes the next evening. The Auckland union celebrated its semi-jubilee this year by a social, which extended over two evenings, so as to give a chance for the two shifts to attend. At the second evening's function last Monday . advantage was taken to make a presentation to Mr. J. I. Abfalter, J.P., president of the Australian Federation of Tramwaymen, who has been attending the Auckland conference, with a. valuable gold watch, suitably inscribed, as a token of appreciation from the N.Z. . Tramways. Federation of Mr. Abfalter's services in the securing of better, working conditions for tramwaymen generally. Mr. Abfalter has already visited Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch, and addressed the unions in each place, and on Tuesday left for New Plymouth,: Wanganui, Napier and Wellington on the. same

errand. On his return to Melbourne he will make a comprehensive report", to his own executive. ?$m • A SAFE POLICY. On account of consistently bad conditions, all the railway trade unions in England have endorsed an agreement for a reduction of wages by 2i per cent. The negotiations were • conducted in an atmosphere of moderation and reason, both sides recognising the necessities of tho economic situation. To the men the agreement is a bitter potion, and all there is to be said for it is that its acceptance saves them from possibilities even more bitter. At the end of twelve months it may be terminated by three months' notice, and the workers are hoping that by.that time reviving trade will justify a return to the old standard of wages. It is estimated by Mr. J. H. Thomas that the effect of the reduction of two and a-half'per cent on the wages of all grades of railway workers will be a saving on labour cost to the companies of nearly £3,000,000 a year. The reduction is also to apply to the salaries of the higher officials, and has been accepted by the railway directors. COMMUNIST TACTICS. It has long been recognised by unionists that Communist doctrines are being preached and practised in the unions, with the avowed intention of breaking up the industrial unions as a defensive force. We are now told.that Communists in New York are willing to work below the scale agreed to : by employers and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Samuel Klein, general manager of the Industrial Council of Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers, quotes Louis Hyman, leader of the Communists: —•

"I am advising the workers to work piecework; to work under tho scale, as low as 25 to 30-dollars a week, to work single time for overtime."

SOME COMPARISONS FOR MR. HOOVER. . "My country owes me nothing," said Mr. Hoover, Republican candidate for the United States Presidency, recently. "It gave me schooling, .independence of action, opportunity for', service, t and honour. In no. other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope." This moved the "Nation," of New .York, in an. editorial, to say:—"Somebody- ought at least to tell Mr. Hoover that there-is a man named J. Ramsay Mac Donald, of obscure parentage, born without heritage, save ability and honesty, yet he, without influential friends, looked forward with such unbounded hope that he becams Prime Minister of Great Britain. Neit, somebody should tell Herbert Hoover the story of the harness-maker who became .the first President of the German Republic, having been born of humblest parentage, with no such inheritance as was Mr. Hoover's. Next, somebody should ask Mr. Hoover-to turn to Italy and gaze upon one Mussolini, who was certainly not" born with a golden spoon in his mouth,, but forced his way upward. Next, his attention-should be invited to one Georges Clemenceau in Ranee, and even/to one Napoleon- Bona-v

parte, -who. is reported in .various histories to have -worked his way tip from obscurity to the foremost place in Franco without money and without influential friends.- No country but America which offers opportunity? Faugh, Mr. Hoover. That is buncombe. You know vastly better." ON VERGE OF STARVATION. Labour member Davidson said that immigrants from Southern Europe, who knew nothing of Labour conditions here, wore largely displacing Australian workmen, while the wholesale issue of slow workers'.certificates was watering down tho standard of living. Never at any time before were there so many swagsmen on the roads, and he knew of many cases where women and_ children were on the verge of starvation. The Minister of Labour and Industry (Mr. Farmer) said that the Government hoped to obtain about £12,000,000 of cheap money, spread over a number of years, under the migration scheme entered into with the British Government. This money as it came in could be utilised on such large works as the Wyangala dam, and in such cases the basis of employment would be 50-50 Australian workers and migrants. The money would not cost the State more than about one per cent. ,