Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 66, 9 June 1927, Page 7

Trades and the Workers

BY

BOXWOOD

arbitration court >'ot set down yet. CONCILIATION COUNCILS Auckland Female Bookbinders' Union, June 13. Mr. S. Tyson, Dominion Inspector of Sawmills, is in Auckland on a holiday. Mr. J* A. Lee, M.P., will speak in tlie Queen’s Theatre on Sunday evening on “A Ministerial Smoke-Screen.” Mr. A. H. Dixon, secretary of the furniture trade workers, is on tour in the north. He will return to the Trades Hall next week. Mr. M. J- Savage, M.P., is visiting the Great. Barrier Island on the invitation of his constituents there. He will return by next boaL Glassworkers’ Hopes.—lt is hoped that the Penrose Glassworks, which have been closed for some months, will * reopen on a near date and give employment to about 100 workers. The Timber Workers’ Union has an extensive organisation. There are 42 branches, 27 of which are in the country and 15 in the towns. Since Easter the headquarters of the Storemen’s Federation has been moved to Auckland, and things are now in working trim. * * * Half the moulders employed by a big city ironworking firm were put off last week, and Thames* moulders are expecting a similar misfortune. The man who gets things done gets too much ironwork done outside the Dominion. Following a meeting last evening, at which the business was not completed, a special meeting of the Labour Representation Committee will be held on June 22. The executive will hold a meeting on Wednesday, June 15. % * * * Mr. J. Roberts, secretary of the Alliance of Labour, arrivcid from Wellington this morning. He will be in Auckland for about a week. This morning he addressed the executive of the Waterside Workers’ Union. The registration of the new Biscuit Workers’ Award has been completed. There will be not less than 400 members to the union and the enrolments to date are very satisfactory. A social and dance is to be held for members on June 23. * * * While the iron-working trades are going to the dogs in the Dominion the trade is thriving in Australia. About 30 clearances have been granted this year to union men from Auckland who have decided to try their fortunes across the Tasman. The minimum trade wage there is £6 as against the rate of £4 19s in New Zealand. Swelling the Unskilled Ranks.—Artisans out of work straightways fall back on the unskilled tasks. That is shown very obviously at the present time, but not in the membership of the General Labourers’ Union. The complaint is that these out of work tradesmen will invade the General Labourers’ territory but will not join their union. * * * Looking Forward.—A committee, headed by Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., and including Messrs. E. Phelan, and R. F. Barter are discussing the pre» parations for next general election with all the unions. * * * Tramwaymen’s Elections. This month will see the end of the financial year for the Tramwaymen’s Union. The annual general meeting draws nigh. Nominations for officers for the union will be called in about a week’s time, the elections, as usual, to be on the preferential voting system. Engineers Reorganise.—The Federation of Engineers’ Union has reorganised the Taranaki branch of the pinion and step* are being taken to have three awards made covering motor mechanics, general engineer^and sheet metal workers. The Hamilton branch will meet on Wednesday next and the Thames branch next Thursday night. Mr. R. F. Barter has returned from an organising tour. • * * Labour Debates.—Under the auspices of the Labour Party it is hoped shortly to arrange a debating competition between teams representing the various branches. An interesting debate will be on the question of working class education between the Workers’ Educational Association and a team to be arranged. Public debates are being arranged for June 26 and July 24. ♦ * * Observing the Act.—The Apprenticeship Act should be drawn to the notice of some employers who have not observed it closely enough. A case in Point arose recently where apprentices out of their time in an engineering shop were automatically put on 12 months as improvers without the Apprentice-ship-Committee being consulted or adyxsed. That committee has the right to decide whether a youth is fit for a P improvership and on what terms. * * * Painters and White Lead.—The Painters’ Union were about to raise a 'oice against the use of corroded white th'* an( * to boost the use a certain other non-poisonous comodity. Unortunately the latter has gone off the Ptarket, and as there is now no substitute for corroded lead the subject not be pursued further. It is a matter of the greatest importance to he health of members of the trade apd reserves great consideration. * * * The Tra mmies’ New Agreement. Tramwaymen’s Union is proceedi K *°r a new award. Three big meet- . JJ Shave keen held and early next mo* a agreement, one of the comprehensive and carefull.vcirted that has been seen locally, will » n hands of the employers. ♦. holiday clause is of particular inst - It asks for three weeks’ holiD f °rtnight to be in a summer st>n»°vT a wee k in winter. The prean i T°kday clause in the award is also « interesting one. It provides for the mrnfK sß to k© granted not once in 12 an a , ut once in 11 months, so that and m Pi°yee gets a rotation of seasons, 12 extra Period of holidays once in dut v«.£ 8 ' The tramwaymen are on and w " en everyone else is on holiday, bp ov Sener °us holiday treatment is to De expected. •,* * * men* , Ur Bureau Stormed.—Unemploya ni ; rampant in Melbourne. When lha ?„ spect work was held out by 4„on remie r of Victoria, Mr. Hogan, Laho m !L n stormed the Government liirth Ur ** ureau on May 25 last and a Han ‘••000 men waited at the Trades e a - ed unt *i the press of applicants had ach en A fe ature of the Government Am was absolute preference for belifM- a i* s ' The Trades Hall officials th e e that the promise will solve Winter empl ° yment Question for the fcftdfer P »v epa ‘ r#> —The suggestion that toe present methods of inspect-

UNION MEETINGS DUE Moulders ; To-night Moulders June 9 * Curriers and Beamsmen June 10 Saddlers *.* *.*. **. *.* June 13 Painters June 13 Storemen j une 14 plasterers June 15 Carpenters June 15 District Council Alliance of Labour June 16

ing ships’ repairs in New Zealand vessels that are not fitted to do so might sometimes get to sea, was put forward by Mr. A. H. Philips, secretary of the Boilermakers’ and Steelworkers’ Union. The appointees at present are usually drawn from among the carpenters and shipwrights, but the unions are working for the appointment of ironworkers to these positions as the nature of ships’ repair work in these days’ requires an ironworker rather than a woodworker.

The Timber Trade. —The Government’s decision to protect the timber industry by prohibiting the importation of sawn timber, has not been reflected locally yet, and not be for some time. The trade is at a standstill and the timber workers are experiencing a bad time indeed, especially in the country. About 50 per cent, of the mills are closed and not 5 per cent, are working full time. Most of them are working three or four days a week, but the employees, many of them being married men, cannot leave the districts in which they live. Advances to Workers. —lt is no fun owning an advances to workers’ home and being out of work. Cases have come to light recently of men who have been unemployed for some time having been pressed seriously for their dues. A worker on less than £6 a week cannot afford to lose any time off work. It is usually the wife on whom the worry falls most seriously and there falls a train of results, discouragement, sickness and worry. The' Government will have to consider lengthening the term or giving some relief. A Westland Timber Case. —The executive of the Westland Timber Workers’ Union, with the agreement of the public trustee, will take the Carmody case to the Appeal Court. The case arose from the death of a worker while doing work which, though sanctioned by the customs of his job, was not specifically within the terms of his employment. On these grounds Mr. Justice Adams dismissed the application for damages in the Supreme Court. But the Westland timber workers feel that the effect of the judgment is too far-reaching to be allowed to pass without a fight. s No Invitation to Dinner in Queensland. —-Very severe criticism is aimed at Labour Parliamentarians wherever unionists foregather. It is pointed out that while they continue to denounce the capitalists of the Opposition the Labour politicians individually and collectively are a very wealthy body. Dissatisfaction with them has been simmering for a long time, and the breach came last Labour Day when the industrialists refused to invite the Labour members to the annual Labour Day dinner. The Labour daily newspaper in Brisbane is said to be too partisan, and ten unions have combined to publish a monthly organ from the Trades Hall. • * * * Censoring Social Theory. —The old question raised by the Party every session is to be agitated again. The banning of the literature of social theories is a continuing insult to a New Zealander’s intelligence. Says Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., “we are treated like children in the way our reading matter is censored. Publications dealing with social and economic questions should have as wide a circulation as they can get so long as their doctrines are couched in decent language. If they are hollow and shams them the public will soon find them out. Then how is one to know what is in the banned list? How is one to know that one is contravening the law?” The censorship and. the mysterious banned list will be stirred up again this session.

Summer Schools. —New Zealand has not taken the summer schools movement as seriously as European countries. The International Federation of Trade Unions is not able to hold its usual international summer school this year owing to the federation’s triennial conference in Paris. Next week, however, the Socialist Youth International will be holding a school for youth leaders at Hindsgave Castle, in Denmark. to extend from June 14 to June 18. The southern division of the British Workers’ Educational Association will hold its school at Frankfort-on-Main from July 20 to August 13, and the International Labour College at Elsimore will hold a month’s international school in April and May of next year. Besides these schools, which will delve in international questions, Britain. Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland have plans in hand for national schools. The summer schools movement Europe is very extensive. The Rule of the Unskilled. —“ One big Union—One Big Farce.” That is the reaction of the idea on one Trades Hall official with long and wide experience in the Labour movement. It would simply mean, he said, that the unskilled workers by shfeer weight of numbers would rule the skilled men. The movement would not make any progress in this country. Another opinion voiced is that the idea is not by any means dead. It is a question that rests with the workers who could bring it to a realisation if they wanted it. Which at present they don’t. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act does not provide for the registration of a single union and unless the act was amended the workers would be without the advantages of. conciliation. They could do without it, but at a price.

Afraid of Unionism. —Ninety per cent, of the workers in the big industrial plants in the United States are trained to their tasks in a few hours. So there is available an inexhaustible stream of docile unskilled labour. At the soul-killing monotony of fast repetition work some of them work as much as 50 or 54 hours a week with an extremely undesirable physical result to themselves. They are well paid. The corporations do all they know’ for the employee. They build him a house out of his wages plus a contribution from themselves. They put his savings away for him plus a contribution from themselves. They build social and athletic clubs for him, collecting the cost of maintenance from his wages. They buy for him food and clothing and furniture, and the terms they give him are always so much better than those obtainable outside that the employee has no alternative but to be grateful. But it Is questionable if what is being done outside the working hours compensates in the right way for what is being done inside the working hours, says H. G. Adam, a special representative with the Australian Industrial Mission to the United States, who was in Wellington yesterday. The one thing that those controlling mass production dread most is mass organisation among their workers. They fear the intrusion of unionism as they fear nothing else, and rightly so, because unionism in America is not uniformly honestly led, and it has sworn that once it gets the chance it will play havoc in these mass-production plants. Meanwhile mass production and American unionism cannot live under the same factory roof. At present mass production is very mucL top dog.