£1 A WEEK DEMANDED "OR ELSE....."

Chronicle (Levin), 22 March 1947, Page 5

£1 A WEEK DEMANDED "OR ELSE....."

INCITEMENT TO MILITANT ACTION BY WATERSIDE11 ' 'It was £5 a week for the Judges" states the natio-.ai secretary oi the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union (Mr. T. Hui) in an article discnssing the panding application to the Arbitration Oourt I'or a general wage increase of £1 a week. "In the name of jnstice, we deniand at least £1 a week for the woricers." The article appears in the current issae of the oiliciai journal of the I'ederated Waterside Workers. Mr. Hill states iliat "to win tlie 61 an liour we must mobilise. Jji that way, we can put tlie representaiives of the Federation of Labour in the ])Osition to inform the Court that the sixpunce must be granteil, or else . . . "The necessity for agitation is be yond question. \\'e have only to glanee across the Tasman to Austrnlia, wliere the powerfut A.U.T.U. applierl for a £1 a week increase. After a long drawnout lieariug the (.'ourts granted os. Tlie decision [irovoked a storm ol! industrial trouble. Now ihe uuions are having to tiglit the employers for tlie other 13s and are meeting with sueress. "The X e w Zealaiui t'ourt will do more for industrial peuce by grunting the full £1 a week. "The function of tlie Uourt'has been clearly delined. It is not so much to (letermine wages and conditions as to prescrve industrial peace. if it wautsj to do that, the way is obviuus. " On the basis of reason and jnstice' there caii be no argtimeut about the workers' elaim for tne full £1. Statis--ticians will be workijig overtiine to re- i ject the elaim." I Keferring to "those Uliambers of Commerce, openly deelarel enemies of the wage-earners, " Mr. 11 i 11 remarks: ' "Tliey say it will rum the eountry. i Their kiiul said that about every pennv ; increase the workers ever managed to seeure since the day of tlie Roiuau gallev slaves.

"Worker is Awake." "Today, liowever, 1 am eonlident the worker is awake. Tlie worker today knows that he owes it to his wife and family to do his dutv in the front line of the economic battle, just as he did it yesterday in the trenches, in the ships, and in the aircraft. In soiue ways, the economic battle is harder. , Tlie stake is just as great — our security, ! our wives, and i'amiJies. " Mr. Hill contends that, by iiving in ; "this capitalist society," there is no ] alternative to lighting for betler wages , and conditions, but his personal view about putting up wages was to cut ta.va- 1 tion. Tax exemption froni overtiine was a logical way to promote produc. ' on, "but Mr. Nash has bluiitly defce'eil otherwise. " " Yes," eontinues Mr Hill, "we have! got to fight for that sixpenee an liour. J We mnst place the Federation of Lab-j our in a position to rnake it abundantlyj clear that its tens of thousands of ; members will not b'e content with lessj tlian £1." Mr. Hill eoncludes thati "not onlv watersiders but civil ser- j vants, sliop assistants, clerhs, tramwavnien, drivers, engineers, railwaymen, all in their tens of thousands, their wives and children, with voiees modest in themselves, but mighty in cliorus, will demand justice. If tliev are not given it, than, as in the past, we mobilise our forces. "