WHITHER BOUND LABOUR?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24411, 24 September 1940, Page 9

WHITHER BOUND LABOUR?

TO THE EDITOR

Sir.—There must be many among your readers who have been struck by the similarity of conditions set out in the Daladier-Reynaud report copied in your issue of September 21 and what obtains in this once-favoured country of ours. The Socialist Government now in power set out to improve the position of the lower-paid members of the community. This was to be accompanied by a reduction in working hours, an increase in the standard of living and a jrenera] slackening in producing effort. The disastrous effect of the 40-hour week is daily becoming more evident: production has fallen off by 15 to 20 per cent, in most factories, the idleness of a Saturday morning has not benefited workers either morally or physically, and the cost of living has automatically and steadily risen. What telling words are these in the report: "If production is insufficient it is primarily because its possibilities of development have been paralysed. The 40-hour week limits our capacity to work." The Government's only way of dealing with this situation is to increase wages, or add 1.0 existing ones bv means of subsidies We are urged, and rightly, to produce more, and to work as we never. did before. Would anyone contend that this advice is being acted upon by say coal miners, waterside workers or employees of the railway workshops? All these things make one wonder "Whither bound Labour?" Do the oeople of this country realise that Great Britain is fighting for her existence, and that all this slacking and increased costs are blows against her? Where would she be now if tactics adopted in New Zealand were in existence in the Motherland? It is surely self-evident that if we do not exert ourselves more the victory we look for or are determined to secure will be postponed, so let us be up and doing, shut our ears to the pleas of trade union secretaries and show just what we can do when we are put to it.— I am, etc.. M >