UNION MEETINGS DUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 156, 22 September 1927, Page 13

UNION MEETINGS DUE

Tramwaymen (morning and evening) To-day. Biscuit Workers „ .. To-night. Related Printing Trades To-night, Painters Sept. 26. Stonemasons . . . . .. Sept. 27. Plumbers’ Educational .. .. Sept. 2S. Coopers .. Sept. 29. Enginedrivers . . Sept. 29. Moulders .. Sept. 29. CONCILIATION COUNCILS Gas Company’s Clerks (adjourned) Monday. Chemical and Manure Workers October e! Auckland Plumbers October 11.

The biscuit workers’ award has provided an increase quite substantial in some, cases. . The union will meet to-day specially to look into it and to elect permanent officers.

Mr. E. J. Watson, secretary of the Bakers’ Union, lias been to Wellington to give evidence on Mr. J. McCombs's Daylight Baking Bill, which has been referred to the Labour Bills Committee.

The new Shops and Offices* Act will cause some pained surprise. As the Minister of Labour indicated when the committee was at work on it the milkroundsmen will have to take any hours the employers dictate. The proposals advanced by the City Council are having minute consideration at the hands of the Tramwaymen’s Union to-day. The union is holding two bumper meetings at the Trades Halil to hear the reports of the assessors.

Arbitration Calendar.—lt has been a long time since the industrial world has been so inert. Union business is in the doldrums, consequent on- tlie deaclness of trade and the prevalent unemployment. The coming session of the Arbitration Court promises to be one of the least thrilling on record as regards union business. Though the usual run of compensation business is expected, and a good deal of miscellaneous affairs are

coming up. The local bodies* labourers havei the floor to themselves in a dispute on the wages clause of their new agreement.

A Qood Wash-up.—The Gasworks Employees’ Provident Fund has wound up for the year after a jrery successful spin. Last evening a meeting was held to hesar the result. The year ended with a membership of 96, which is almost double the number in the fund last year. This year 20 employees received sick benefits and the fund ended with a surplus for distribution amounting to £l2 5s 2d, after paying out £Bl 3s 4d. This is only the second year the fund has been going and its successful operations and growing popularity speak volumes for it. The working of the fund is simple enough and though it has its limitations, as all who go into such funds quite understand, it seems destined to go forward to bigger and better business.

Local Bodies’ Labourers.—ln rather a complaining tone, the annual report of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association referred to the local bodies’ rate of labourers’ wages. The custom has been for local bodies to pay one penny above the basic rate of Is lOd. Waihi, for instance, pays 2s. The only dispute set down for hearing at the next sitting of the Arbitration Court in Auckland is the wages clause of

the provincial local bodies’ labouers’ award. The employers are sticking out for the Is lOd, and the men are demanding Is lid. There is no fair comparison to be made between the case of local bodies’ labourers and other labourers—for instance, builders’ employees. In the latter case the general run of wages, with good contractors, runs twopence or even threepence above the award »rates. .

The Spread of Trade Unionism.— An interesting comparatively summary of the trades union movement in the various Arbitration Court districts is contained in the recent report of the Labour Department. There are 9S unions registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act in the northern industrial district. 84 in the Wellington district, and 14 in Taranaki. And in these districts there are 27,286, 35.038, and 533 union members respectively. In the South Island there are 64 unions in Canterbury, with 16,821 members; in Otago and Southland there are 100 unions, with a strength of 14,974: and in Marlborough there are eight unions, with a membership of 533. Nelson's 13 unions have a membership of 571, and Westland’s 14 have a total strength of 2,956. These figures are exclusive of unions registered under tlie Labour Disputes Investigation Act, and unions not registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. For instance, in Auckland there is the Gasworks Employees’ Union, with 800 members, and the Tramwaymens Union, with over 1,000 members.

• * Reorganisation in the Air.—Reports from the South state that sawmills j are beginning again. The tariff schedule cannot be thanked entirely j for this heartening of the trade, but j it is probable that millers feel in their ! bones that other action is contemplated from which as great or greater bene- , fits will accrue. The Government may i soon decide to exercise supervision ! over the working of bushes which has j been a frequent subject of reproach, j Considerable loss has been occasioned by not taking bush as a face and leaving logs of some commercial value. “No sound reorganisation of the industry,” remarked Mr. E. J. Phelan, secretary of the Timber Workers’ Union, a few days ago, “would be complete if milling did not engage close attention. There are too many in the industry altogether. Timber grading and seasoning could be immeasurably improved. Too much timber to-day comes straight front the saw to the builder and the very birds you might say are still trilling in the rafters of your house.” The introduction of universal building by-laws which will enable the use of»second-grade timbers in house construction may not be far from realisation. It is to be hoped that general reorganisation will shortly restore the timber trade in the esteem

of the public and the builders who have been prone to look rather suspiciously on appeals for help. • • • The Baleful Eye.—The Employers' Association has been casting unfriendly eyes on the apprenticeship system. In the annual report the abolition of the district proportion is urged on the ground that the system prevents tlie training of every youth in any skilled trades he wishes to enter. Thus it is reasoned: A skilled labourer is worth more to the country than an unskilled worker, therefore train anyone and everyone in anyskilled trade he wishes to enter. It reads quite well. but. of course, there are some flaws in practice. No one can deny that what is wanted is not more tradesmen but better tradesmen and this is what the Apprentice Act is intended to promote. Most of the skilled trades are full enough and the reasonable employer knows that to flood a trade with apprentices is in-

I directly to increase the number of. ami ■ the competition among, employers. i>o the task is t<> keep close to the margin where there are just enough journeymen to fill the shops and just enough apprentices to learn the trade thoroughly and perform their services to the community in a workmanlike manner. For the public has a large interest in this question Xo one ultimately gains in the end by debauching a trade by untrained apprentices. Indiscriminate apprenticing means poorer training and so deprives the public of a fair job for its money. Taking things all together it is imI possible to arrive at any other con- ! elusion than that the interests of the i employer, the worker, and the public lie in the one direction—the better training of youths. The report of the Employers’ Association has this unfortunate tendency. It bears the finger-prints of seeders for cheap labour.

If it had the cause of the trade as it , whole at heaxt it would not be so ready to advocate the abolition of the I district quota, but would re-examine the shop quota and consider the bene--1 Jits of its abolition. Apprenticeship to i the trades which are not working ■ under a shop quota has a dozen ad vanI tages over those working under the S shop quota where there is the eternal snatching after the fraction. Peri fectly fair to all and infinitely better ! for the trade as a whole is the con- | dition in trades having no shop quota but only a district quota to consider. 1 The Apprenticeship Committee regulating the trade ha* in its hand the allocation of apprentices to shops and so long as an employer can teach such youths as he has the committee e\tends its hearty congratulations. What could be fairer to employer, apprentice and the public than that. The attack on the Apprenticeship Act do«ss not appear as frank and open as it might be.