LABOUR LEADERS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1736, 29 April 1913, Page 6

LABOUR LEADERS.

EXPENSIVE TO THE WORKERS. It is very unlikely that workers of Wellington, take thought about what it costs tlieni per year to belong to unions, and similar bodies called by the now frequently used name "organisations." The actual amount is rother startling. Tliero are over 20 professional union secretaries in Wellington who do 110 other work whatever. Two of these .are assistant secretaries. It would be a very difficult matter to ascertain with accuracy what each of these secretaries is paid, but the average is certainly not less than .£3 per week. A very few receive less than this, but 011 the other hand many receive much more. A considerable proportion of the professional union secretaries have more than one union to control, and if they have two they receive two salaries as a matter of course. At .£3 per week each the amount paid every year by the workers of Wellington to their union secretaries is over .£3OOO. In addition to the secretaries above mentioned—who are usually called the leaders of the Labour movement—there is perhaps nearly as large a number of workins? secretaries, who ply their trade as usual, but who do the secretarial work of their union and receive a relatively small salary for it. In calculating the ultimate cost to the* workers, account must be taken also of stationery, printing, rent, and other office expenses. Making a modest allowance for all these additional items of expenditure, tho total cost cannot be less than .£SOOO. Then there • are occasional campaigns of one sort and another. Just now tliero is a, municipal campaign, some of the funds for which are provided by the Labour party, a body to which workers are contributors. Usually the candidates are union secretaries. A large proportion of the Labour fifteen standing at tho forthcoming municipal elections aro union secretaries.