WELFARE LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 103, 26 January 1920, Page 4

WELFARE LEAGUE

THE WATERSIDE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION ARE THE EMPLOYEES EOING THEIR DUTY? f'J'liQ opinions sot out in this article have been written to express the views of the N.Z. Welfare i League.] The economic and social reasons for the existence of shipping companies, harbour boards, and otuer cmpiuye.s conneucd with the walcrside transport ministry are that the.-;; can manage affairs to the advantage ol the general punlic. i'lte management should p.tiduee satisfactory results or be replaced by some better method ot control and direction. :Not only must the management in Mew Zealand produce good results, but it must produce good results lor the people of New Zealand or it is no use to us. The idea that companies, connected with what is a most important national service, -'an continue to function along the single line ul making profits for shareholders and salaries',lor the heads has got to be abolished in this lime of reconstruction. The needs uud demands of society are paramount when the whole, world calls for a rebuilding. If the tecent war taught anything it was surely Ine vital importance, of organisation This is tho outstanding lesson of our time. Here we have a transport industry upon which the whole trade and commerce of our country depend. It is a matter not merely for the heads and stall's of .shipping companies, or of harbour boards, nor for the waterside workers. it concerns ' all Die people of this Dominion iiow this industry is inn. It is our business, and wo must look to it that it is run prop;ily. The public have mostly hitherto been content to pay the freights, fares, and price? charged, grumble sometimes, and let things go. Now (ho public, must insist on ils rights, and the first right is that those in charge shall give- good management or get out.

Out-of-date Individualism. One thing that is standing in the way of good management of more than one industry in i\'ew Zealand is ths lack of men in charge of wide capacity in thought. There is just as much need for au employers' educational association as there is for a workers' movement of this kind. What strikes the impartial student of the business side of our waterside transport industry is that those in charge know all about the routine methods, but are quite content to continue applying narrow individualist control where such has' become wholly ineffective and out of date. The want 'of inventive faculty, special initiative, and a wise daring towards the estahlsliment of more requisite systems of management is very striking indeed. Most of the employers, if *ot all, seem to consider that the individual employer or the simrlo company should go on operating on the lines it has laid down, independent of what all othe-s are doing, until an impasse is reached, and then, some temporary expedient can he adopted. This spirit if narrowminded individualism of control has had its day. It is not now in keenins with the broader social-minded outlook that is being'demanded from those supplying various classes of necessary public services. The root idea that individual efforts in industry and commcce must be directed along well-organised lines towards social service is the. one form of Socialist thought that all Ihinkeis of to-day recognise as sound. The industry, we are dealing with is not a privnto, personal, or individual service. Tt is essentially a public service. It remains for the present, employing rnmnanics that, control the industry to show that they are doing their duty as public servants, and not bolstering up an effete individualism out of harmony wilh the social spirit of the times. To prevent the growth of an abstract, theoretic. (Socialism which will destroy individual initativn it is necessary, particularly in our big national services, to mould a sound progressive social, spirit out of the very personal initiative we wish to preserve. The out-of-date individualism is narrow selfish, unnrcanised. and n"electful of ordered system. The employes who are hnnpinqt on to that are fnilimr utterly in their dutv. Tt does not seem that the wntersid" enmloyers have learned Ibis vet. 'TV only 'individualism that can stand t'>» beat -"f tn-d»v's fi»r^ P eritic'sni is that" wbich is "-ocinl in <sniHt. scientific in outlook, and tM constantly nlnrps tho public interest first in all its undertakings.

Business Without Organisation. | The great trouble of the waterside industry is that on the employers' side there is business action without the necessary organised co-operation, of all the forces of management.' On the workers' side there is very complete combination, but it is directed solely tow.irds the syndicalist (objective* of purely selfish ends. It aims at "all for themselves and the public as' paymaster." Taking the port of Wellington, wo find there are somewhere about a dozen different emplovers in the service, and they have all been used to considering it not as one service, but as a number of independent services. Just let us think of what would become of our railway transport service if every branch, and at every town, the branches were acting as independent services. We would Ijust get to nowhere very quickly. The fact is that the shipping and transport service of our country at the various parts is not organised, it is disorganised. Thu en-plovers are not doing their duty, nor will thev until they put this right. The absolute need exists of treating this thatinct branch of transport as one service, thoroughly co-ordinated at every port and over the entire country. With each company carrying on its own stevedoring operations in active independence of the other managements there is an absence of any general control that would properly systematise and govern the industry as a whole.

'I here exists a Shipowners' Federation which lias been in being for a good many years, but so far as dealing with the vital matter of creating and putting into actual practice a definite plan of general management for the industry, this federation seems to have failed, if it has ever seriously tackled the problem. No Co-operation. The main trouble is that instead ot complete, co-operation between all _ the watt'rside employers and stevedoring firm* they are active competitors, each out for their own hand, often after the same labour supply, and appronch'iig each other in a spirit of jealous watchfulness rather than the mutual confidence that should obtain. This lack of proper organisation on the business side is sadly demoralising. It leaves the door wide open to the intrusion of a semi-criminal and debased class of individuals who enter the ranks of labour at our ports, and this class do much injury, and cause much trouble, to all concerned, to the self-respecting workmen, to tho employers, and In tlie general public. Tho call for belter organisation on the employers side or this industry is very urgent and insistent. The harbour boards, shippir-ff companies, and others.concerned should come together and give their best thought to this matter nf once if they wish to retain control. Tf this is not done tho public, in its own interest, will have to demand the establishment of some other authority of control. This Irnispor't industry affects too many interrsk throughout the Dominion, both of primary and sr-condarv production, and the distribution of products to let it go on without coimilete organisation.

The Slate's Claim on the Industry. Pome very pregnant remarks were made !>,- Mr. (',. l\ Skerrelt, K.C., President of the Welfare League, at the conference in July Inst, on the above subject. After pointing-out that inland transportation is nationalised, and our coastal and overseas transportation is still under private ownership, Mr. Skerretl: said: There arc two considerations of importance. First, the transportation by shipping is vital to our commerce (he could have added our industries

also). Secondly, shipowners are more than any class of the community indebted to the facilities afforded by the State. They have the benefit of our huge industrial organisation, our telegraphs and telephones, our banks, and all the hundred and one. parts of the economic machinery. But, gentlemen, in addition to this Ihcv have the benefit of our expenditure of over .030,000,01)0, which we have expended in our railways to bring our produce down to Urn quays and the wharves, and leave it there lo be carried by the shipping companies at such freight and under such conditions of carriage as they think proper. T may point out what conditions obtain, and if these conditions do not call for some Statu interference, then I know of no conditions under which Stale interference is warranted.

lie (loos not advocate nationalisation, but says "I cannot see why the State, should Hot have a voice in their maiisitfi--mi'iit—(hear liear)—in the fixing of freights, and in the determining of tho conditions nf transport." All consumers will agree that Mr. Skcrrett presents- a sound ease for the Slab's claim on tho industry. Whilst not wishing to prejudice any interest in the waterside dispute now pending, we must ljoldly say (hat both on the side of the shipping companies, particularly the large shipping companies, and the waterside workers' unions, there is too. much, far 100 much, nf a disposition to fix these matters up viiih a strict regard for their own sectional ends, and with an utter disregard of either the rlum upon tho industry or the general public's rights. In Ihe'settlement of conditions between these parties it would be a most gross procedure if tliev are simply to get together and fix what will suit them without the control of any judicial body, <>r even (he presence of the Press and pubic, and then pass the Ml! of costs on to the public, who must ultimately pay. The waterside people—employers and employed—are not justified in constituting themselves assessors, jury, and judge, in a case wherein the State has claims and the public just rights.

Wanted, a Permanent System. Orio of Hie greatest evils attaching to our industries in Nee.' Zealand is tl;o vcrv great amount of tlio wurl; that is done on a basis of casual employment. Ff n judicial examination wa- niacin inlo the effects, economic, tccial. and moral, of the absence of permanency and ivaconnble security in die employment' of Hie vcrv many thousands- who are eiisjii','ed Ijt the hour ami by the day tlnomjliotit the T)omin ! nn, I am certain Hint the report wouhl bo a sluirk to our soifcomplacency. The casual system m our wharves has shown itself in many dircelioiis as a veritable curse, l.nwdhis a soured mentality nf bitter disaffection, hatred, and cupidity. The want of per. inaneiicv in employment and consequent, insecurity of livi"". is ii"cessi;rily destructive' of stability of character, and the qualities that make for good citizenshin. This system without system W destructive of home life, of orderly habits nf thought and nnt ; on, of the snise of personal responsibility and specially of regard for sreial rtehts. For many years thoughtful men intfrested in the waterside problem have been urging the need for adopting it general niaii for Hie permanent ami regular employment of waterside workers. We believe it would not overburden the industry financially if, by a system of shift working, the whole work was done by regular bands under one control, say, at a waste of .C 4 per week, rn the basis of an eight-hour day, and overtime pay for env extra hours worked. Welfare'plans for the employees might Ik put in operation by mutual arrangement, such as restaurants for meals, with rooms for sleeping accommodation for single men. a social hall, and a general scheme nf superannuation. From what we can learn a tentative plan for permanent employment is already drafted, but it h.is been carried no further.. The mutual io.'Oonsies nf the employees, the wild ambitions of Ihe syndicalist industrial unions, and Ihe in;: roll between them stands in the way. It has r"aehed a stage when the Government of ihe country in the general interest oMho people may have to say to the parties: "Gentlemen, Ihe public is waitintr: settle, your differences quickly or wo will havo to settle them for you."