UNIONISM IN JAPAN.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 60, 3 May 1912, Page 2

UNIONISM IN JAPAN.

Peculiar Customs.

They liave labor troubles in Japan, just as t-hoy have them elsewhere. This is what surprised. Mr. J. M. Candy on his recent tour of that empire. Tho artisiuis havo very strong guilds, which are extremely insistent not only on preference to unionists, but on local preference. That is, a carpenter from Nagasaki, for instance, is not welcomed at Yokohama. All treaty for labor is done with the guilds. A contractor at Nagasaki, desiring to erect a houso, sends to n guild a request to he furnished with 30 carpenters. If he finds that the work is not progressing sufficiently fast, he asks for moro men from tho guild, which, moro than likely, will reply: "Oh, no; you have quite sufficient." Then, perhaps, the contractor asks the guild at Yokohama to furnish him with 10 carpenters. The request is complied with, and the men come; but they do not work. The Nagasaki workmen down tools, and there is a battle, which invariably ends with tho intruding workmen being defeated. All wages- aro paid, not to the artisan., but to tho guild. Since the war and due to the taxes imposed by reason of military and naval expenditure, tho increase in the cost of living has been as much as 50 per cent. Naturally, workers demand more wages, and thov have obtained it. Tho wages aro still mounting, and it is nothing unusual for a-.piaster to be met with a demand for still further increases of 3 to 10 cents a day.—"Tho Clerk."