Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 210, 24 November 1927, Page 13

Trades and the Workers

=BY

BOXWOOD

UNION MEETINGS DUE

Mr. J. Purtell left for Wellington yesterday. Mr. W. Miller has gone to New Plymouth on business connected with the Storemen’s Federation. He may be back to-morrow morning. * * s* Owing to the union having taken action on a breach of its award Mr. E. J. Watson has postponed his trip to Northern towns until time is more convenient. That may be after Christmas. • * * ANNUAL MEETING The Hairdressers’ Union held its annual meeting on November 21. The secretary’s report stated that at no time had there been much unemployment in the trade, though a few assistants had had long periods of slackness. For the first time in the union’s history action had been taken in the courts for the recovery of dues and fines. The Apprentice Committee had met twice, said the report, and in both cases in relation to misbehaviour of youths. On each occasion there was complete unanimity between employees arid employers as to the best thing’ to do with the recalcitrants. • • * PLUMBERS’ APPRENTICES A recent judgment of Mr. Justice Frazer amends the plumbers’ apprenticeship order by replacing in it a provision which was in the previous award, but which was left out of the present one. In brief the amendment means that any employer not a registered plumber and not having a registered plumber to teach apprentices cannot continue to employ apprentices. No one can quarrel with that decision. It seems so self-evident a necessity for the trade that its having been overlooked in the award is remarkable. ARBITRATION SITTINGS As set down at present the Northern itinerary of the Arbitration Court provides for a sitting irt Hamilton on December 9 and the opening of trie Auckland sessions on December 12. The business set down so far consists mainly of compensation claims and minor industrial business and if the court, can get through the calendar in a week it is proposed to call at Gisborne on December 21 on the way South again. However, pressure of business may compel the court to put off its visit to the East Coast for a feiv days.

ON APPRENTICESHIP QUESTIONS

When the amendment of the Apprenticeship Act was before the House of Representatives in October last, the necessity for more co-operation among the workers’ representatives on the apprenticeship committees was brought homo very forcibly to the workers generally. At that meeting, held in the Trades Hall, to unite all hands against the Act, the question of having an association of representatives to take a united stand on some points was mooted, and seems likely soon to bear fruit. A meeting has been called to organise on apprentice questions, and to consider what steps should be taken in making application to the Court of .Arbitration on the proportion of apprentices. The meeting will take place in the Trades Hall on Tuesday, November 29, at 7.30 p.m. * * * ROPING IN POWER BOARDS Electrical workers will be interested in the next Arbitration sittings in Auckland and Gisborne, when the union is to fire two more shots at power boavds. At Auckland the union will apply to have the Bay of Plenty Power Board joined as a party to the Northern Industrial Electrical Workers’ award. Then, at Gisborne, it will apply to have the Poverty Bay Power Board as a party. Under that particular board, the anti-union activities have been, as good as a’piay to watch, but everyone had a lot of fun, and out of all the anti-union prdpaganda- the men came through smiling, with an increase of a penny an hour all round as a slightly premature Christmas gift. The union has had a good deal of pother with the boards in one way or another. They have avoided the incidence of the awards in all possible ways. It’s a wbnder they don’t claim exemption from them, as the farmers do. * * * TRAM FEDERATION OFFICERS Next conference of the Tramways Federation will be held in Auckland early next September. To it wiil be invited the secretary or the president of the Australian Tramwaymen’s Association, whose presence will be of distinct value in comparing the conditions and common difficulties of trammies in the Dominion and the Commonwealth. Mr. J. Liddell, secretary of the Auckland Tramwaymen’s Union, as vice-president of the federation, took the chair in the absence of Mr. W. J. Rodgers, of Wanganui, who was unable through ill-health to attend. Mr. Liddell was elected president for the coming year, with Mr. C. Hobbs, Wellington, secretary, and Mr. IT. Rodgers, vice-president. Other executive members elected were Messrs. J. J. Nixon, of Auckland, and R. H. Spackman, cf Napier. The election of South Island executive members was left over in the meantime. * * * TRAMMIES’ CONFERENCE Success attended the deliberations of the Tramwaymen’s Federation conference at Napier, and if one is to believe all one hears some of the delegates addicted to smoking are waiting for an opportunity to hold another conference there. They were welcomed with a civic reception, and entertained at the tobacco factory—a model factory for the employees, it is said —until the charms of Napier and Hastings and Hawke’s Bay generally took a very high place in their regard. But the serious business: The conference discussed the question of the overloading of trams and omnibuses, and the effect of overcrowding on the safety of vehicles. It was also decided on the remit from the Auckland Union to wait as a deputation on the Minister of Public Works with reference to time-tables necessitating too high a speed. It was decided, also, to ask the Minister to have gazetted the tramway regulations referring to the loading. equipment, and operation of trams, and the management of systems. Of course, the poor old arbitration amendments came up for a grilling, and the federation agreed to fall into line with any national movement to oppose them. The conference decided to press the Government to take some

action to compel the provision of sanitary conveniences at all tra.ni termini. * * * SOME ANCIENT HISTORY When old pioneers like the late Mr. John Faucus die, it recalls a great deal of old history that is fast tobogganing into oblivion. That gentleman had his share of the dust and heat of early labour struggles, but even before his time there is history, and one of these early incidents was the move for knocking off at 4 p.m. on Saturdays, which 76 years ago—for it is as recent as that—was looked on as altogether revolutionary, and was shown as much friendliness as is now extended toward a meeting of Communists. On March 4, 1851, a meeting was called in the White Hart Hotel, Queen

Street, at which Mr. Geo. Ansell took the chair, and a resolution was passed, on the motion of Messrs. William Griffin and Joseph Medhurst, "That in the opinion of this meeting it is now Expedient for all men in every branch of the building trade to give notice to their employers, on the Stli of March, 1851, that they intend to commence a custom (to be afterwards observed in Auckland) of leaving work on the following Saturday afternoon at four o’clock, and to commence again the following Monday morning at seven o’clock." A second resolution, by Messrs. James Bradley and' John Page, called on all present to come forward, sign the resolution, and contribute to the expenses of the meeting, which had been called "by placard.”

A further meeting of this "short time committee” as it was known, was held on St. Patrick’s Day, 1851, at which it was resolved to point out that, as several small contracts had expired, and some bigger ones were about to be let, "the time was the most favourable opportunity in six years to bring about the new regulation,” and that scarcely an employer would feel it. The employees of these firms, Messrs. Armson, Hayes, Black, Evans and Co., Burns, White, Tattersail, and Dignam, were listed as "true to their promise and signatures on March 4th,” and all others were urged to assist in establishing a custom that would not only benefit themselves, “but be a gain to their children.” It was pointed out that they worked three hours per week more than in Great Britain, two hours more than in Southern settlements, and that in England and Scotland Lord Ashley and others

were advocating a reduction of hours worked in manufactories. The committee appealed thus: "Working* men of Auckland.—We are striving for what is reasonable, and we wish you, like men of moral courage, to ask for it peaceably and properly, and your employers neither can nor will refuse your solicitations long.” Five more employers soon signified their willingness to adopt the new demand, and in this fashion the first organised attempt at improving the workers’ lot in Auckland (then barely 11 years old) was brought to a successful conclusion. BETTER RELATIONS When Mr. J. Sutherland Ross, C.M.G., lpeaded at the Manufacturers* Conference on Monday for better relations between employer and employee he twanged the string so frequently fingered on visionary harps for the last 20 3*ears. The term "better relations” has an alluring sound, but what is the use of pious wishes when the same manufacturers have the waddy of piecework up tlieir back. The industrialists’ hand in recent legislation is not calculated to yield peace but the sword of unrest. If these gentlemen are really sincere in their protestations of real peace and not merely peaceful exploitation they have had and still have a glorious opportunity of meeting Labour round the conference table to devise something better than the arbitration amendments to mention only one vicious law of recent years. Conferences are like the better relations, but

this is how Mr. George Hicks said things in his presidential address to the Trades Union Congress: "I should like to say this: We all know—employ- \ ers as well as trade unionists —that the vexatious, toilsome and difficult period through which we are passing ■ is a transitional period. Much fuller use can be made under these conditions of the machinery for joint consolation and negotiation between employers and employed. We have not reached the limits of possible development in this direction. “Such a direct exchange of practical ! views between representatives of the great organised bodies who have responsibility for the conduct of in- j dustry and know its problems at first i hand would be of far greater signifi- ! cance than the suggestion which has j been made in certain quarters for a ! spectacular national conference under ! Government or other auspices to discuss a vague aspiration towards ‘industrial peace.’ ‘ Discussion these lines would brine ; both sides face to face with the hard ! realities of the present economic situ- ! ation, and might yield useful results j in showing how far and upon what terms co-operation is possible in a | common endeavour to improve the j efficiency of industry and to raise the j workers’ standard of life.

Coopers ight. Related Printing Trades Painters Bricklayers . 28. Carpenters . 30. Hotel and Restaurant Workers