Thought for the times

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1921, Page 2

Thought for the times

.1 A i'ANI'.SK t .Allot' K 1) KM A VIIS. It is probably with better reason in Japan than in most countries that employers insist that a redueion of wages is necessary, for it has become a very expensive country to get anything done in. Building is especially costly. Kxperimentally, a number of American houses have been imported, but, apart from their being unsuitable tor the Japanese, the contractors put such fancy prices on the work that has to be done locally that little is saved after all. However: the fact finished product is any cheaper at all in such circumstances is illustrative of the high cost of Japanese labour. The workers in Japan are quite up-to-date in their ideas of collective bargaining and other labor principles. That is to say. their leaders are, and there have been one or two notable victories lately, in which tile men have secured the recognition of their union as a negotiating body. This is the more remarkable seeing that a trade union is still a body which hardly has a legal right to exist. AVliere firms are wholly or partly dosing the men meet and demand retiring allowances of three to six months’ salary- and they get them. Tt is quite a new feature of industry in Japan, and it is dillicult to see exactly why the employers put up with it.