WAGES AND PRICES.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 10, 12 May 1911, Page 5

WAGES AND PRICES.

To the Editor. Sir, —It is of very little use to agitate for Higher wages without going a step further. I suppose your readers liave all noticed that uo sooner does a trades organisation obtain higher wages and better conditions than the employers push up the- price of the commodity they handle. They say they do this to cover the increased cost of production or handling. I wish to give an illustration of how this pans out. Some- years ago, the butchers' assistants of Christchurch formed a Union., and had their wages increased by something like £1 per week all round. The. master butchers immediately held a meeting, and agreed to raise tho price of meat Id por lb. all round. Ono of the.se butchers employs about 23 men. He is therefore paying about £20 more wages than he was before the rise. I have it on good authority (the man who cart ed the meat from the abattoirs) that this butcher sells not less than 37.000 lbs. of meat per week. At Id per pound this amounts to £154 3s id, and after you havo deducted, the £20 increased wages, th-e respectable sum of £13A 3s 4d is available to swell thit butcher's bank account. This is only one instance of how ''Fat" has benefited by the formation of trades unions, and yet "'iTat" howls whenever wages go up. The fact is that the. wage earner is very little better off with higher wages, for the reason that his purchasing power is eorresponclingK decreased. "Under the present system there is no rem-edy; th-erefoie. Workers, Unite, to bring about tho Socialisation of all industries, when Profit will bo a thing ot : the past, and every able-bodied man will be doing his shnre in the production of wealth.—Yours., etc., R.R.