UNION NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 458, 22 May 1909, Page 3

UNION NOTES.

[This column is edited by the i' laxmills Employees’ Union Executive. All mat ters for publication under this head must be forwarded to theSocretarv of the Union,l

Inspector Culver, of Palmerstou North, paid a flying visit to Foxton on Monday last, and visited Green’s Poplar mill in company with the Secretary. Further developments may possibly be forthcoming. CONTRACT CONDITIONS. It would be interesting to know whether the three members of our Union at present working under contract with Messrs Broad'and Reeves have by their signatures to the documents placed themselves outside the Workers’ Compensation Act. Also whether in the event of employers becoming bankrupt they would not have forfeited their claim to first call on assets. If these two suppositious are correct the proposed contract system would seem to have hardly left untouched a single one of the Acts framed for the benefits of the workers. At the time of writing we have had no leisure to investigate these questions, but we shall go more fully into this aspect of the question next week. THE LABOUR WEEKLY. If any of our members are desirous of subscribing to the new weekly labour paper recently started under the auspices of the Trades and Labour Council, they may have copies posted to them on payment ot a quarterly subscription of is 6d. A specimen copy of the paper containing an article bearing on the flax industry will accompany our next week’s issue of the Manawatu Herald. We can give the new arrival no stronger recommendation to our members than the fact that it is edited by the Hon. J. Rigg M-L-C. If necessary we can arrange to have this paper posted to each sub-branch upon payment of the quarterly subscriptiou. THE SOCIAL CLUB. We have had a considerable attendance of town members at this. We would remind our country members that they can hear all the, news, get a game of cards and a hearty welcome at this institution any evening they may be in town. Mr J. Rose has installed one of Mr Barges’s patent washing machines at his mill and intends giving it a trial spin to-day.

We understand that some ot the town mills are going to run a forty-four hours week after the end of the current mouth, owing to the lack of the necessary light in the evening.

THE AUCKLAND WEEKLY. Apparently the contributor to this paper is insufficiently informed as to the correct source of the suggested contract scheme. It was plainly stated in the local press that Mr Pryor had been in Palmerston for a week conferring with the Association regarding the existing contract system- We know for a fact that the leading members of the Association have had the necessary printed forms of this contract ready for signature by the .employees, we are credibly assured that in at least two instances these contracts have been offeted to the men, and a paragraph which subsequently appeared in the local press, we were informed that the proposal was so unfavourably considered that the millers concerned had the option of relinquishing the project or closing their mills. This proposition was put to the men by two of the leading members of the Association, (apart from Messrs Broad and Reeve) and yet in the face of this the correspondent of the paper referred to above says, that the proposal “did not emanate from nor was it supported by the chief officials of the Association.” We would tender this gentleman the advice offered in rhyme recently in these columns “ Get up-to-date on figures, Lux.”

We have, however, carefully culled this gentleman’s quotation of Mr R. Gardner’s valuation figures, which we unaccountably missed in the Dominion. These will probably come in handy during the next session of Parliament.