UNION NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 458, 15 May 1909, Page 3

UNION NOTES.

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

THAT CONTRACT AGAIN. There are, as usual in contracts, the usual “hereinafters” and “hereinbefores” and “notwithstandings” presumably inserted for the befogging of the lay mind and the increase of the professional income ! We do not consider it necessary to weary any of our members with a useless repetition of these but we would invite attention to and criticism of the following. EXIT GOVERNMENT GRADERSClause 2 of the existing contract says “all work shall be done in a thoroughly efficient manner and to the entire satisfaction of the employer or any person or persons he may from time' to time appoint in that behalf, and the employer or his agent so appointed shall' be the salt judge oj the efficiency of such work .” That is to say you may get the full number of points for that department of milling in which you work and all the employer has to (do is to say “No, I don’t like it” to set aside alike the opinion of practical men and of those gentlemen appointed by the Government jq grade the product. Of course it may be urged that no right-thinking employer would act in such a reprehensive manner. But the recent actions both of the firm who have introduced this system and the President of the Association tp which they belong are not conducive to inducing any sane man to put his neck into a nbpse when the other end of the rope is held by either of these parties or their like. With the holding in hand of 25 percenti, we dealt last week, as also with the death and bankruptcy clause. Clause 8 specifies that no contractor shall absent himself for any time during ordinary working Hours without the written consent of the employer. Cause 10 details the times at which the employer may without notice suspend the operations of this contract: (1) If through floods or bad weather the employer is of opinion that it would be injudicious to carry on operations. “ (2) If any portion of the machinery shall become damaged by fire, flood, storm, accident or otherwise. “Otherwise” is distinctly good. It opens up a vista of possibilities too lengthy for us to comment upon. There are several other “reasons” for the employer suspending contracts, but they may all be summarised in the sentence “Whenever he likes,” But when he wants to remove the suspension all he has to do is to address a note to you at the mill to that effect and you must immediately “thereupon re-commence work hereunder.” It is possible that a man’s home may be 10 miles away from the mill. No matter; the written notice is left at the mill for him and he must start immediately or forfeit the money lying to his credit. We also referred to the “liquidated damages” clause in last week’s notes. UNIONISTS : PLAIN AND COLOURED. Three of our members working at a certain mill have signed contracts containing clauses similar to the above. They are the “coloured” unionists and the hue is plain yellow. We are well content to leave them, although in our opinion their action appears like an attempt to evade the provisions of the Award.

Turn we, with relief, to, a letter received by the secretary enclosing levies from one mill in the same district as the one referred to above. The full amount due from members was remitted and there was a postscript to say that the extra money sent was a voluntary contribution equal to the levy, from all the non-unionists in the mill. “Look on this picture and on that.” We take this opportunity of tendering our hearty thanks to our outside contributors, not so much for the monetary value of their assistance as for acknowledgment of our principle which is involved in their donations. They’re good enough to belong to us! We can’t give them any higher praise than this-—though they may perhaps think after reading the foregoing that, like Jack Johnson, the Union has got a “ yellow streak ”in it! Our only reply is that it’s not a streak, merely a spot, and one that we are unfortunate in not being able to remove.

Mr J. Rose is at present installing one of Burges’s patent washing machines at his Foxton mill. A meeting of the sub-branch at Tokomaru was held on Tuesday last. The opinions voiced regarding the contract system were too vitriolic to admit of publication.