Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1917. LABOUR UNREST.
THE industrial upheaval in Australia, whatever the real cause of it, has served to focus public attention on the relations between employer and employed; and in this connection there is an interesting article — “Thoughts on the Present Discontents” —in the Quarterly Review. It is written by Mr C. Ernest Fayle. He refers to the engineers’ strike and other recent manifestations of industrial discontent. “A ten days’ stoppage of work by ten thousand men,” he says, “is much easier to realise and much more likely to attract attention than the fact that fifty thousand men have been working at 5 per cent, below their maximum capacity for forty days; yet the effect on output is exactly the same. In the ordinary year the time lost in strikes is very much less important than the loss in time, or its equivalent in limitation of effort caused by discontent and friction, which stop short of declared hostilities. These considerations apply with particular force in time of war.” There are not wanting signs, he adds, that Labour would be willing to lay aside such of the old trade union rules as can be proved to be restrictive of output, and an obstacle to efficient economic production. If it were admitted to some measure of more direct control over the conditions under which it works and that many employerswould welcome the admission of Labour to" such participation in knowledge and responsibility as would make for intelligent and willing co-operation, in place of the old open hostility or passive resistance.
He is of opinion that we shall not get rid of labour unrest until we have made it possible for the workers to feel themselves members of an undivided community, united by the double bonds of common interests and reciprocal obligations.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1742, 18 October 1917, Page 2
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303Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1917. LABOUR UNREST. Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1742, 18 October 1917, Page 2
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