Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 72, 16 June 1927, Page 7

Trades and the Workers

BY BOXWOOD

UNION MEETINGS DUE Alliance ot Labour To-night Gas Clerks’ Smoke Concert June IS Labour Representation Committee .. .. June 19 Furniture Trades " June 20 Hairdressers " “ " " ” ” 1! June 20 Plumbers June 21 Freezing Workers . . . . June 23 Boiler Makers [l]* *. !! June 23 Biscuit Workers’ Dance .. June 23 Arbitration Court .. July 4

The Penrose Glassworks are expected to begin operating again on July 1. * * * General Labourers’ Union, has been organising in the Rotorua and Hamilton districts, and will return to Auckland to-day.

It has been conservatively calculated that 75 per cent, of the number of unemployed in the city are men usually employed in the country.

The City Missioner, the Rev. Jasper Calder, wrote and thanked the plasterers for their donation to the mission funds for the relief of destitution. Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., who returned from his trip to the Great Barrier on Tuesday, is busy preparing for his departure on Wednesday next for the session.

Plasterers’ Apprentices.—The Plasterers’ Union is agitat€;d over the apprentice question. It is thought that there is more than one apprentice to two journeymen employed and perhaps there is even one to three. Returns are being asked for from the employers.

Speakers for Sunday.—Messrs. Nash and Semple, at the Queen’s Theatre on Sunday night, will speak on two years of Mr. Coates and his Government.” Mr. Semple will deal with things they have done which they ought not to have done, and Mr. Nash with things left undone which they ought to have done. * * *

Prosecuting Employers. Various unions in the Trades Hall have expressed impatience at the difficulty experienced in getting the Labour Department to prosecute employers for breaches of awards. Steps are to be taken shortly to see if something cannot be done about it. It is complained that it is almost impossible to get a prosecution started.

Benefit Concert.—A benefit concert is being promoted by the painters for the widow and children of the late Mr. C. F. (Pat) Allen. If half the tradesmen who knew the late Mr. Allen turn up at the Town Hall Concert Chamber on the evening of July 27 it be very successful financially.

Gone North. —Mr. J. Roberts, secretary of the Alliance of Labour, and of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, spent a week on watersiders’ business in Auckland, and left on Tuesday for Whangarei and northern ports. He will be back in Auckland at the end of next week.

Waiting for Conference.—Receipt of the claims of the Tramways Union for a new agreement has been acknowledged by the management of the Auckland tramways, and the union is awaiting the arrangement of a conference between their representatives and those of the City Council.

Factories in Dressing-rooms.—Talk about the high wages in the freezing industry One would need to be higher paid to stand for what has occasionally ben found even recently, where the men's dressing-rooms have been used for the carrying-on of very obnoxious sides of the freezing trade.

A Flying Visit.—Messrs. W. Nash and Robert Semple will pay a flying visit to Auckland, arriving by the Limited on Saturday and leaving again on Monday. On Sunday afternoon they will meet a full assembly of representatives of all branches and affiliations of the Labour Party at the Trades Hall to discuss the whole plan of campaign for next elections.

Painters’ Union Committee. The election of the committee of the Painters* Union took place at the meeting of the union this week. The result was the election of A. Hanks, T. Birmingham, F. Emmott, J. Howarth and R. Davies. The office of president went to Mr. T. Jackson, who was unopposed. He thanked the members for electing him, and Mr. Danks, the retiring president, added the hope; that members would give the new president the same support as they had given him. .

Support a Good Cause. —A while ago a miner’s child at Huntly, Henry Dobbs, was playing innocently on thp railway lines, as children of two will, when a shunting engine ran over him and severed a leg and an arm. An art union has been promoted to get funds for the education of the unfortunate child and books of tickets have been forwarded to all the unions. The money collected will carry a Government subsidy.

A Waste of Money.—Failure of applicants in industrial disputes to purge the lists of parties to disputes is resulting in a very large number of copies sent out to those parties being returned by the postal authorities as undelivered. These copies are sent through registered post and cost about 7d each for postage, so that the return of 500 or 600 copies represents a considerable waste of money.

Business For Arbitration Court.— There is a very small list to lay before the Arbitration Court this coming sittings. So far the chief matters are the Scoria Pit Workers’ Award, the Female Bookbinders’ Award, the Dominion Coachworkers and Wheelwrights’ Award and the Journalists’ Award. There is also an application on behalf of some retail shopkeepers for exemption from the closing hour conditions.

Agreement Reached.—The parties to the Female Bookbinders’ Dispute reached an agreement round the conciliation table on Monday. As a result the hours were reduced frofcn 45 to 44 with minor changes in the working clauses of the present award. The union was represented by Mr. B. Martin, with Miss M. Dunsford, R. Underwood and B. Waterman. On the master printers’ side were Mr. N. Mcßobie, W. J. Spring and W. Brander. The award will come into operation at the same time as the Dominion Printers’ Award.

What About It?—Apropos of the Arapuni strike, .the Boilermakers’ Union have a bone to pick with Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, Ltd. When asked by the union to send the returns of boilermakers engaged the company said that it was not covered by the returns clause in the Boilermakers* award, but that the question of giving returns would be looked into. The result of looking into the question arrived by post at the union office about ten days later in the form of a notification granting the company release from the clause. What the boilermakers want to know is why was the union not given a chance of opposing the exemption?

The Timber Slump.—Timber mills continue to close down. It is estimated that out of 1,600 men who are in normal times engaged in actually producing timber (and that is excluding bushmen) 800 are out of work and 600 are working short time. The balance may be working full time. To restore the timber industry to its usual condition would require a duty on sawn timber of at least 8s a hundred superficial feet. Until the industry picks up it would seem that country timber workers who have their homes and families round the mills must suffer in isolation. Their case as they are not in the city is not so well known, thouga it is not less serious than in any otner industry seriously affected by the slump. When the question of duties came before the council of the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday Mr. Allum strongly advocated more protection for New Zealand timber to keep the workers in the industry employed. Mr. M. J. Bennett lent his support to the proposal for a lower duty on bulk importations.

Women in the Mines.—Lecturing at Oxford recently, Mr. Tarini P. Sinha said there were 60,000 women working in Indian coal mines. They were not allowed to work more than 54 hours a week, but there was no limit to the number of hours they might work per day. Consequently they were often kept underground 30 hours at a stretch to save the expense of bringing them to the surface.