THE HALF=HOLIDAY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 207, 26 May 1908, Page 7

THE HALF=HOLIDAY.

EXCHANGE OF HOTEL WAITERS. EXTRAORDINARY STATE OF AFFAIRS. PLAIN-SPEAKING AT,,THE UNION MEETING. -A' - member .' of" tho ■ Cooks and ' Waiters Union roport-ed to tho meeting of the Union. ■ : last'night that certain waitorsfrom ono lead-ing-hotel had taken advantago of their i. weokly half-holiday from that hotel, and had worked for the half-day so granted at. an-' other hotel,"'thereby, he alleged, "taking thobread and:butter out of tho mouths of tho, i casual' waitorsy and jeopardising tho existence of the weokly half-holiday.'? STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY. „ 1 Tho ,-,sccrotary of 4ho Union,. in acknowledging tho-.veracity, of. tho statement, re: r ferrcdvory bittorly to whak he alleged, .was the " premeditated-and low-down tactics of i ' some of tho leading hotel-keepers of Wellington:" ' • , V,' :■ ' ' , " Wo ■ have to doal;" said the secrotary, " with a'moro reactionary and conservative set of employers than, ever it , was the lot of any industrial Union to copo with." : • The hotel-keepors of Wellington, he said, had Apparently, .deliberately : sot • thomselvea : . out ttTdefpat the efforts of the 'Union. The practice complained ofj namely; tho exchanging of'waiters on tho days of their resfiectivo . half-holidays/ -had been instigated, saner tionod, and encouraged by tho licensees of -. certain-of theilarger hotels here! The.older servant's and'better Unionists in thoso hotels - had 'repeatedly refused >to'work in the contemporary hotels on the day of their halfholiday, but so keen'were the employers to i , perpetuate tho system of exchange of waiters, and to thoroby create bogus argument for the abolition of the half-holiday, that they practically coerced-the men into accepting casual: ■ ' work in tho other hotels. ' ' , • - < " A . FIGHT TO A FINISH." It appeared to him that these publicans wore .'■■ desirous of' a " fightbto a- finish." • They evaded tho award, and. the' Shops and Offices Act: on every protencd, and the'.Union was forced. tO continually, appeal to tho Labour Department '.for . of...those. condi-. . tions. Behind, the, .hotel-keepers was tho ugliMt 1 and - the cruellest' monopoly that eje- ; : isted iin the Dominion.) Tho licensees them- - ■. selves were revolting, against'its methods. It behoved-, tho members and overy . workor iu : Wellington to consider the position. , J STATE-CONTROL. - ' : . There" was only-one solution to ,tho prot ' blein ij^\Stai»;,;contrplJ Members > should. strikeS}but : ithe rtop^line." :at,.every .possible . opportunity. ;".Thß 1 'employers | continually ' .flouted the aspiration^'of the Union, and the membors" should 'in;, turn'..retaliate m a way that, would teach them their duty t-o tho class ofysociety on which :theyi dependod.for thoir vory existence. ; /;.: . With reference •to ..the membors who i worked}, on . their, half-holiday, the meeting docidod that-thsy aitend the' Executive and giro an 'account of their actions.