UNION NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 17 April 1909, Page 3

UNION NOTES.

[This column is edited by Iho Flaxmills Employees’ Union Executive. All matters for publicat ion under this head must be forwarded to the Secretary of the Union.!

“ We shear non-union here ” says he; “ We call it scab ” says I. “Banjo” Paterson. AT THE START. First an ineffectual invitation to join the New Zealand Flaxmillers’ Association in applying for a revision of the award. Then one abortive application for revision on their part alone. Failing this, the present attempt on the part of some of the millers to institute a contract system —presumably under clause n of the award. Discussing this most recent development with one of the millers the other day we were informed that it was not that they wanted to cut down the earnings of the men, but that they thought by working' everything on contract they would get more work done in the same time for the same money ! Strangely enough, whilst not wishing to cut down the-earn-ings, Messrs Broad and Reeves offered five of our members contracts lor scutching and pressing at 22s fid per ton. That is to say the employers quoted imagined that their scutchers were only working at a three-quarter pace ! What lazy men we must have in our ranks, it by the simple means of docking 25 per cent off piece work rates you can put up your output by one-quarter. Upon the question of the lock-out implied by the dismissal of our members when they would not accept the above rate we have nothing to say. It is now a matter for settlement by the Department of Labour and the Arbitration Court. But upon one or two side issues it would appear that there is, at the moment, a word or two that call urgently for utterance. It is an open secret that the suggested contract system is nothing more nor less than an organised attempt to get behind the award. Admitting this, what is to be said of the workers’. who are bolstering up this attempt ? PLAIN SCAB. It is right here that the two lines of Paterson’s quoted above apply. For the man who conscientiously objects to Unionism and says so, we have every respect. He at least, is an open enemy. For the man who, fighting an uphill battle with a wife and family, secedes under pressure to the side of the fat man, we have every sympathy. He is the victim of circumstances. But for the men who, to avoid a trifling temporary inconvenience (be it physical or financial) deliberately play false to the members of the Union they dishonour, there remains nothing but the abhorrence of all right feeling men, the contempt of the speculative land jobber whose second-hand tools they are in the present instance, and the thirty pieces of silver which have been their rightful heritage since the days of the, original Iscariot, We understand that some of our members have signed Messrs Broad and Reeves contracts for various branches of work in the mill, and we wish it to be clearly understood that the forgoing remarks voice the opinion of the Union’s Executive regarding their behaviour in the matter. The time has gone past with us for picking phrases. If any of our members wish to be numbered with Mr Greig’s "faithful seventy I five per cent” let them say so and be done with us. But to attempt as these men appear to be doing, to run with the fox and follow with the hounds is purely ridiculous. ORGANISORS AND AGITATORS. This contract system is not the outcome of any special member of the Association. It is the result of a week spent in Palmerston by a gentleman for whose fighting capabilities the Union has the profoundest admirati on —tempered with respect! It is curious in this connection, to note how environment changes the classification of a man in current journalese. Working for a Union, sparing neither time nor trouble to arrive at conclusions which shall better the worker without unduly taxing the employer, his description is usually “an agitator” or "a parasite” or “a political wirepuller.” Striving on behalf of an Employers’ Association whose chief aim and object would appear to be the reduction of wages he is either an “-organiser” an “adviser” or “a gentleman with a talent for organisation.” And the exact difference between the two men is that between half-a-orown and two and sixpence. SLIDING SCALES. At the special meeting of delegates held at the Union’s office on Saturday last, it was resolved that in view of the employers’ action in regard to contracts discussion on the sliding scale of wages recently suggested be dropped. It would almost appear to be a pity. The scale was, with one or two slight modifications, a reasonable one. It had in its original form earned the unstinted commendation of one or two millers, and that it is now so much waste paper is simply due to the endeavour of a portion of the Association to defeat the ends of the Arbitration Act. Our be sorry to hear that our secretary, Mr P. T. Robinson, has been confined to the house for the last week with a Sharp attack of congestion. He hopes to be able to resume his ordinary work ©n Monday next. In the meantime hiS duties have been carried out by different members of the executive.