Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 374, 7 June 1928, Page 11

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER”

UNION MEETINGS DUE

Thursday, June 7 (to-night) .. „ Plumbers’ Educational (2) Thursday, June 7 (to-night) .. Women’s Branch Labour Party Friday, June 8 Curriers Monday, June 11 Painters Monday, June 11 .. .. .. .. .. Saddlers Monday, June 11 .. .. .. ... Timber AVorkers Tuesday, June 12 .. ... .. .. .. Storemen Wednesday, June 13 .. .. Carpenters Wednesday, June 13 .. »• ». •• .. •• •• •• •• L.R.C. Wednesday, June 13 .. .. .. .. Gas Employees

Mr. J. Sutherland, secretary of the General Labourers’ Union, will visit Napier at the beginning of next month r° Put the case of the Hawke’s Bay Abourers before the employers. * * * Mr. R. p. Barter will be going South shortly to take part in the conferences the Amalgamated Engineers. The ®*t conference is to be held at Well•ußton on June 21, and the second at thristchurch on June 25. Dominion conditions, with particular reference o several specific contentious quescus, will be discussed. * * * The Extra Day Indurtrialists at Home have subthat a place should be found r r J“ e extra day in Leap Year. A journal satirically asks: Why make two Wednesdays in one e s, so that every employer who pays «es by the week would get a day’s * or nothing? Some might agree ‘Arbiter” that two Sundays uia welcome in some weeks. ♦ * * Miscalculation! critic points out that trol t * ns t°n Churchill assumed conD r-»T«- ,^ e national money-bag he to cut €10,000,000 a year thvT 1 When he took over from Philip Snowden we were €790,000,000 a year—now it 7* t?”?.' o °o,ooo. so that he is out by “ulhons per annum. Labour for City Seats election campaign is proOT* steadily, and throughout the “union candidates are being chosen the workers in the big in mhi ovember . In those city seats hich Labour members are sitting, p* em »> er s have been chosen as the j seat S r ‘°niinees but in several other k n ; how held by Reform, a selection V is to be taken. For Roskill there A" Richards, D. Wilson, J. *4r * aTl< * O- Mason; in Eden a simiW. T. Anderton, J. W. iiiri Purtell and A. S. Richards; T Parnell, J. W. Yarnall and W. | <*oo<rt rton - The selection ballot to .u official party nominee will **** within a fortnight. *Humanising” politics are taking an active part in WatfnrL v England, an( j the Liberal nn ha* the effective support of

some of the party’s most prominent women. The meetings, which are described as “by the women for the women,” are aimed to “humanise” politics first of all for the working women, both the Liberal and opposing policies being analysed to show their actual and probable effects on everyday prices, and particularly on food prices. * * * Worst Painted City It has been said that Auckland is the worst painted city in the Dominion. Judging from the work the painters in the union are getting, the secretary, Mr. J. Campbell, is inclined to agree with this assertion. Things are no brighter than they were a couple of months ago, and a little casual work is all that is keeping the wolf from the door. The latest stunt move to cut into the trade of the painters is the operation of a syndicate of housewashers. whose purpose in chief is to wash the house down completely, and touch up the facings and verandah posts with a little dark paint. This does not prolong the life of the coat of paint already on the house, which should be renewed at the very outside twice in five year's. World’s Worst Paid A prolonged wages movement in the shipbuilding industry in England has resulted in the employers ottering bonus increases ranging up to 3s a week to plain time workers, who are now among the worst *d skilled workers of the country. Further, the employers suggest a joint investigation into the regulation of wages by some index of the industry's ability to pay and remind the unions of the contribution they can make to increased efficiency by relaxing restrictive practice* • • • Strike in U.S.A. Hardship and monetary loss is occasioned by a cotton workers strike . tt c* a New Bedford (Mass.) textile workers, numbering about 25.000, struck work on account of a.lO percent wage reduction in 25 mills. it is estimated that this will cause a weekly loss in earnings of £1.0,000. The Mayor (Mr. Charles Ashley) JoiSfht in vlin to persuade the mills to postpone the reduction and the ers to postpone their strike, but the

unions’ council voted by 2,571 to 18S that the strike should begin. The manufacturers have stated that their condition is extremely critical, and that they are paying the operators more than elsewhere in New England, where in some mills the employees are, in addition, working a 54-hour week. There are indications that the strikers will suffer hardship, as strike benefits are only four to seven dollars a week. Milk Issue in School Health food rather than medicine is tho remedy which an Australian doctor prescribes as a State institution in building up the health of the younggenerauons. Dr. J. T. Tennent, Government medical officer in a New South Wales district, revealed recently that in his locality, owing to acute distress, many children of the unemployed were not receiving the right food which was necessary to build them up. A lack of proper food was likely to destroy a child’s career. The Government, he said, should at once create a milk-issue at schools. Milk was one of the most essential foods to build up the body of a child. Many of the children were compelled to run about bare-footed and with very little clothing. In some homes he had noticed a shortage of bed-clothing. Ender those conditions, what was the use of giving them medicine? He suggested that a big percentage of the unemployed could be found work repairing the deplorable roads in the district and installing sewerage. * * * Hardship in Auckland As the winter approaches unemployment in Auckland grows steadily worse, and the pangs of poverty are gnawing at the very souls of some of the less fortunate families.- The out-of-work lists on the trade union's books are swelling, and in some cases are almost as great as they were at the peak unemployment period a few months ago. The prospects of reducing them are correspondingly small. Painters, labourers, carpenters, timber workers, furniture workers, all provide substantial contributions to the standing army of workless men, while privation and hunger have reduced women and children to straits of sheer desperation. Cases have been brought before “Arbiter”—and addresses given —in which women in a precarious state of health lead children showing obvious effects of malnutrition to the most likely haven for relief. The biggest fear is the landlord. Many families are living in rented rooms, and although they are receiving groceries from the Hospital Board, there is no money coming into the home to pay the rent. Many have been threatened with eviction, for the landlady is in turn responsible to her landlord, and needs must collect the rent. These people long ago have exhausted their reserve cash, and now are devoid of food and raiment, and are threatened with a removal of their shelter. One woman who approached Mr. Gavin Stove, secretary of the Labour Party, yesterday, declared that she and her family had had neither food nor firing pver last week-end. j