WORKERS' AND THEIR REWARDS

Chronicle (Levin), 5 March 1949, Page 5

WORKERS' AND THEIR REWARDS

Press Association)

(Per

DUNEDIN, March 4. "It is not surprising tnat the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, is perturbed by the insistent demands of unions for i a substantial increase in the rates of wage and salary for workers amounting to approximately £2 a week or a total of £40,000,000 a year," said the secretary of the Otago Trades Council, Mr. L. F. Evans, in a statement today ' ' The Minister is so perturbed that he is trying to eonvince the workers againsi their will that such a demand, if acceded to, will have a disturbing influence on the eeonomy of the country. Doubtless he will produce iigures of hie own compilation that will create doubts in the minds of a timid few, sufficient at least to make them hesitant in sus taining their demand," the statemeni added. "There is, of course, another side to the picture which Mr. Nash will plaee before tlie Auckland Trades Coun cil at its meeting to-night and whiff. tells quite a different story. It is the intention of the Otago Trades Council to place before its delegates next Moilday night the conclusions which have been obtained after an exhaustive research into the impact of the stabilisation regualtions on the several groups of people in the Dominion. This will probabiy lead to a reorganisation of the approach by the industria-1 workers to the Arbitration Court.. The fmdings of the executive committee of the Otago Trades Council reveal some startling facts in relation to the decline df the relative position of the workers in the eeonomy of the country and the rewards for their labours in comparison with other sections of the community," /