Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 344, 3 May 1928, Page 11

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER”

UNION MEETINGS DUE

Work of the Court The Arbitration Court is still busy sitting in Auckland upon compensation cases and industrial disputes. The caretakers’ dispute comes up to-mor-row morning, and in the afternoon the motor mechanics, as well as the front of the house employees, will be heard on interpretation of award and apprenticeship. On Saturday apprenticeship questions generally will claim the attention of the Court. Monday and Tuesday will be occupied in consideration of compensation cases and on Wednesday the Court will sit at Hamilton. Gas Workers Affected The lack of building activity has affected the work offering for the outside gas employees throughout the big cities of New Zealand, and Auckland is getting its fair share of the reflection from this slackness in trade. The programme of gas-main laying lias been carried well forward, and some of the men are now suffering a fall-ing-off in work owing to all requirements having been filled. This is to be expected, of course, in view of the stagnation in the building trade, as well as in view of the advancement made by electric power for domestic use having its effect—however small — on the operations of gas companies and municipalities trading in this commodity. Tramwaymen’s Union Mr. J. Liddell, secretary of the Tramwaymen’s Union, is kept busy just now watching the. interests of the men at the Auckland Transport Commission. No evidence is being given by the men, but their interests are the interests of the city council on the general question, for it is the muncipal heads whence all blessings flow. While so much attention is being directed to the commission, the adjustment of the dismissal of several men from the bus section of the council Is held up. The union is sanguine, however, that positions shortly will be found for the half-dozen men who were forced on to the road through buses being taken off the run. The best of feeling appears to exist between the council and the men, and both sides are doing their best to right the position. Union Has a Win The Court has delivered itself on the question of bakers’ hours, and the case which the union brought against one of the big baking concerns has been sent back to the magistrate for the infliction of penalty for a breach of the award. With this decision to back its claim, the union is determined to enforce the spirit of the award, and in future masters and men will be prosecuted without further provocation if breaches are committed. This seems tp “Arbiter” to be fair enough. After all, the men, as well as the bosses, are expected to observe the conditions which have been outlined for their benefit as well as for the benefit of the trade generally, and it is competent for the union officials to see that these are executed to the general good. “Deliberate Sweating” Definite evidence of sweated girl labour in the clothing trade is produced by Miss I. Cossey, secretary of the Tailoresses’ Union, who nresented the girls' case to the Arbitration Court during last week. The exertion bonus, which is given the girls on the basis of production over and above the minimum demanded by the award, is juggled, so the secretary alleges, to suit the employers, and a regular practice of docking a shilling a week throughout the year is adopted to compensate the bosses for the paid holidays which the girls receive. Thus the employer gets £2 12s for the year, in repayment for holidays for which he should be paying according to the conditions of employment. “Arbiter” is about convinced that the girls have reached the limit of their exertion in output, and from evidence produced, it seems evident that they cannot work any harder. Yet the employers throughout the trade are forcing them up to the last breath in reaching the figure of payment which will yield them any bonus at all. “The girls cannot stand the pace,” said Miss Cossey. “It is deliberate sweating.” It is more than possible that the department will be asked to investigate specific cases which have been discovered, and action sought, to see that the girls secure a measure of right on the question of conditions. It seems there is something very wrong in the trade, and some justification for the vehement request of the union expressed this week, that a commission be appointed to inquire into the whole industry and the conditions of the workers engaged in it.

Coal Mining at Home Coal-mining labour in England is not happy. The men are disturbed because there is sharp friction in Notts, where some employers are aiding by drastic methods the Spencer non-poli-tical union in its attempt to crush the old miners’ - union, and in response to the latter’s appeal the General Council of the Trade Unions Congress is holding conferences to devise methods of assistance. Communism and Labour It is interesting to observe from this side of the world the struggle that is going on between Communism and Labour in Great Britain. The executive at Moscow of the Communist International has over-ruled the British Communists, and has dictated an extreme policy to them under which they have to put as many candidates as they can against Labour at the next elections, and in particular have to oppose the Labour Party and trade union leaders. The new policy of opposing the Labour Party is an admission of defeat. It marks the end of the “united-front” policy under which, as Lenin outlined it, the Communists were to work with Labour and seek to permeate it. Since 1924 no Communist has been allowed to run as a Labour candidate with sanction /from Labour headquarters or enter the Labour Party as an individual member. If a divisional Labour party adopts a Communist candidate it is disaffiliated, and a new body formed, which may select an official candidate. Judge Annoyed Overworked as he is on the Bench with compensation cases and industrial disputes, Judge Frazer, of the Arbitration Court, is losing patience with the parties in the trouble over the Blind Institute wicker-working conditions. “I fail to understand why you brought this case before me again, without adopting the advice I gave you last time,” he said to the representatives on both sides in the Court last week. His suggestion last time it was raised, was for a conference of the parties to see if a basis of working could be established, as well as some agreement on the question of wholesale prices. Be it said in fairness to the union, however, that it was not the desire of the members to bring the affair before the Court again. This time the employers became alarmed at the price-cutting practised by the institute, and approached the union for support in a joint protest to the Court. The Judge had intimated fairly clearly how he stands, and the chances of getting the wicker workers as full parties to the award are fairly remote. The employers are good trade unionists when their own interests are infringed.

Thursday, May Monday, Mav 7 Monday, May 7 . 3 (to-night) .. .. Women’s Branch, Lab. Party Wednesday, May Wednesday, May 9 9