Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 234, 22 December 1927, Page 13

Trades and the Workers

panned rivers To-night jjoilermakers and Moulders .. To-night Stonemasons December 27 Carpenters December 28 There has not been the slightest fchange noticeable in the timber situation despite the new tariffs. Work is ptill slack about the mills. This is a season of festive eating, pjtd the bakers have reaped the benejit. There is not an unemployed baker on the union books. The Storemen’s Union reports a v(r y busy week for men. There are only a few out of employment, and those who are in work are in it with a vengeance and working night and day. Trade for the holiday season is only steady in the engineering lines, reports ■y r> r. F. Barter, secretary of the union. He has just returned from a trip round Whangarei, Hikurangi, Portland and Dargaville. IRON TRADE CONFERENCE

All centres of the engineering trade are preparing for the conference to be held in Auckland beginning on March 5. The Engineering Union will hold a Pominion Conference and at the same time the ironmasters will be conferring. Following that there will be a joint conference of employers and the union,, and one of the questions to be discussed is the proportions of apprentices. DISPUTES SETTLED The Glassworkers’ dispute was conciliated yesterday. The union was represented by Messrs. J. Purtell and J. Munro. The applicants asked for an increase of wages and the limitation of junior labourers. A complete agreement was reached which will require to be ratified by a meeting of the union which will be held as soon as possible.

■ ■ by BQiwonnUNION MEETINGS DUE

WATERSIDERS’ ROOM A special meeting of the Harbour Board on Tuesday afternoon adopted a number of new by-laws. One of them reads: No person shall bet or wager or agree to make any bet or wager or engage in gaming in the Waterside Workers’ waiting-room situated on Quay Street landing, or in any other premises for the time being set gupart by the board or used for the purpose of a Waterside Workers’ waiting-room. The board has considered the cost of renovations to the room, which would amount to about £9O, and it also has under consideration the provision of a new room early in the New Year. MIS-STATEMENT IN SCHOOL LEAFLET A mis-statement of the wages in the engineering trade is contained in the leaflet that has been issued by the Education Department to children leaving school this year, says Mr. R. P. Barter; secretary of the Amalgamated Engineers’ Union. It is stated that the wage in Wanganui and Wellington is 2s 6d an hour. Mr. Barter states that the wage under the Dominion award is 2s 3d an hour. “In my experience I have found that the minimum wage under Arbitration awards is 95. per cent, of the maximum paid by employers throughout New Zealand.” ONE AWARD FOR THE DOMINION Word has just been received that the national secretary of the Engineering Union, Mr. G. T. Thurston, Christchurch, has made a tour of Otago and Southland, and that the reorganisation of the Invercargill Union is under way, and the prospects are that a very large branch will be formed there. Mr. Thurston has also been responsible for the formation of a very strong branch in Westland, and has recently obtained awards covering them. 'Lately Mr. A. Blank, of the Wellington Union, has been in Nelson and has secured awards covering the industry there. Now engineering is able to claim that it has one award covering every section of the engineering trade in New Zealand.