Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 392, 28 June 1928, Page 13

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER”

UNION MEETINGS DUE*

Thursday, June 28 ( 10-night) •* •* w •• .. .. .. Enginedrivers. Thursday, June 28 (To-night) Plumbers’ Educational. Monday, July 1 •• . • • •• v* .. ~ .. ~ .. Drivers, Monday, July 1 •• •• .. .. .. .. .• Shipwrights.

office of the Auckland Gas Employees’ Union has installed the electric light- This is not a scrapping of loyalty, because the union does not own the office. Besides; the secrecy is not going to use the electric light. He says it is too expensive! The annual special meeting of the \-uckland Operative Bakers and Pastrycooks' and Related Trades’ Employed* Union is to be held on July 7.. This is the most important meeting of the year, and several momentous questions are to be discussed. The usual penalties provided for in the rules ■vnil bo inflicted upon absent members. Unionism Overdone 2fow that the cooks’ strike has finked definitely and the men are manning the ships, it is well to dwell for the briefest of moments upon the colossal futility and extraordinary stupidity of their leaders in insisting upon what obviously was a losing game. It was palpable before the strike had proceeded far that the men could not win through with the owners and the whole Commonwealth against them, and it must have appealed to the men in this light during the extensive and determined negotiations on both sides. Now they are back at work, and all they have to look forward to is a long, long economic struggle to pick up what was lost in the fight. There are limes when unionism can be carried too far, and this appears to be a case in point • • * Old and New Liberals Aja interesting comparison between -he respective platforms of the old and the new Liberal Party was made b f Mr. F. N. Bartram, M.P. for Grey Lynn, while speaking at Auckland »artter in the week. He took to task Mr. W. A. Veitch, member for Wanganui, who had declared that Labour was splitting the vote and helping the Government to retain office. Mr. Bartram had no complaint against the old .Liberals, whose slogan was “the greatest good for the greatest number,” but that party was now dead. To show it was the Liberals who had kept Reform in power Mr. Bartram pointed to the Waimarino, .Westland, and Lyttelton elections, more particularly the former. There Mr. Langstons won the seat for Labour by over 500 clear majority. Next election Liberals and Reform combined to put him out, and they were successful. Similar happenings were recorded at Westland, and attempts were made at Lyttelton. And yet Mr. Veitch had the audacity to say that Labour was keeping Reform i-n power. • * * One Step Too Far For his historic—and decidedly injudicious—utterance tjiat “dead men fceil no tales,” Mr. J. S. Garden, secretary of the N.S.W. Trades and Labour Council, has been committed for trial on charges of incitement to murder. On this side of the Tasman he probably will receive little sympathy for his crass departure from every decent method of settling industrial conflict. Mr Garden has been a fool to himself this time, because he forgot momentarily that the authorities had been “gunning” for him for some time. Mr. Garden has been one of the most prominent figures in the Australian trade union movement for many years. He has been secretary of the Trades and Labour Council since 1918. Before his official association with the unions he was a minister of the Church of Christ, and was afterwards an officer of the Defence Department for a period. Mr. Garden represented the New South Wales Trades and Labour Council at Moscow in 1922. He contested the Sydney electorate as a Communist candidate in 1924, and was refused a passport to China to attend the PanPacifio Labour Conference in 1927. He was recently elected a member of the executive of the Red International of TYade Unions. • * * Lack in Organisation The laxity among workers in organising into trade union groups does not piease the union heads in the land C%' haggis. Census figures show that there are 1.656,200 workers in Scotland, a,nd the organised trade unionists are assessed at 450,000, leaving about 11 millions unorganised. The National Union of Mine workers, for example, had an affiliated membership of 50,000 three years ago, but the affiliation is now reduced to 25,000. It is shown chat the peak in affiliations was reached shortly before the general strike, since when there has been a decline of 50,000, of which 25.000 affects the miners. Whatever else general strikes may achieve, they don't seem to be helpful in organising workers in trade unions. Wanted—A Conscience The creation of an industrial conscience among seamen is the solution which Mr. T. Walsh, a. candidatr for the position secretary to the Australian Seamen’s Union, sees for the present position on the waterfronts of the Commonwealth. In a manifesto issued recently Mr. Walsh urges common sense in industrial progress. "I have warned my fellow officials and seamen over and over again that the constant stoppages for which some of them were responsible would force die travelling public to cultivate the habit of using the railway service in Place of the steamers, and that the ■shipping companies would dispose of their passenger vessels,” he said. Thousands of unemployed seamen throughout Australia bear eloquent but •iepressing testimony to the truth of ray piediction. I propose that the * ommon sense of the seamen be allowed to assert itself and create an industrial conscience in the union which will prevent men from stopping ships tor all sorts of facetious reasons, discreditable to themselves and to their fellows. This can only happen when disputes are submitted to a proper tribunal, whose decisions can be reported to the whole cf the membership, and not left to the discretion of a ship’s crew.” Labour Sensation Something of a sensation has been caused in Australian Labour circles by the action of Mr. J. Flanagan, secretary of the Coachmakers’ Union, in charging Mr. Mi Ryan, vice-president of the Australian Labour Party, and organiser of the Storemen and Packers* Union, with disloyalty to the trade union movement. Mr. Flanagan the charge that Mr. Ryan had supported a ‘•scab” organisation. His all®*ation was that between 1917 and 1919 Mr. Ryan was associated, at the }*cuum Oil Company’s works, with the bQ£us storemen and packers’ union formed during the 1917 strike. •The question is being specially investigated. If the charges are upheld, a move will be made to remove Mr. from hie dual position of vice- j

president of the A.L.P., and union organiser, but if the disputes committee decides that the allegations have ’not been proved, the followers of Mr. Ryan will probably request that action should be taken by the A.L.P. and Mr. Flanagan. Mr. Ryan was formerly vice-president of the Trades and Labour Council. He has taken a leading part in “working-class demonstrations,” and caused a stir when, as a member of the A.L.P. executive, he marched in the Sacco-VAnzetti procession. He succeeded Mr. D. Clyne, M.L.A., to the position of organiser of the Storemen and Packers’ Union. Laws for the Workers Labour members of Parliament have left for the session perhaps the last for some of them, though supporters are sufficiently optimistic to hope that all will go back—and for the next three months many questions affecting the welfare of the worker in New Zealand will be debated on the floor of the House. One of the big things will be unemployment insurance, but it is jikely that Labour members will wait tor a while to see which way the Government is going to jump before bringing down anything in this nature. The Government is committed to the principle of providing some remedy for economic stress, and an attempt at a permanent scheme might be made this year. The decisions of the recent National Industrial Conference will be reviewed in the light of the arbitration laws; and the Workers’ Compensation legislation. Employers and employees probably will give evidence before the Labour Bills Committee when the Arbitration Act is being amended. Other measures of greater or less importance to the workers will find their way on to the Parliamentary Order Paper this session, though just how many will reach the Statute Book it is difficult to predict. A * * Outlook of the Boss An example of the manner in which some bosses are taking unjustifiable advantage of the bad economic situation was brought before “Arbiter” this week, when a man who has been down and out for some time, was offered general labouring work on a building job at the muifificent rate of Is an hour. His wife and family are already underfed, and he, believing self-preser-vation to be the first law of nature, intended to take it on. It will be hard luck for him if another man with a starving wife and family comes along and undercuts liim by 3d an hour. Is New Zealand an industrial paradise with this sort of thing going on? * * * Bakers’ Hours Again The bakers and pastrycook workers are still having trouble over the definition of the working day. It was thought—and reasonably so—that when the Arbitration Court ruled in the men s favour in a recent case involving a Labour Day breach by a master baker, the question would have been settled. Not so, however, for when two other cases embracing New Year’s Day and January 2 were brought recently, they were adjourned for conciliation between the masters and the men. Naturally enough the men say: “We do not want a conference; the coui't has made the position clear.” The master bakers, on the other hand, made an astounding proposition. They proposed that they should pay time and a-quarter for the first two hours, time and a-half for the next two hours, and thereafter double time. As there are provisions at present for double time after 10 o'clock, this was w.orse than before, and the men did not accept. Meanwhile the aeting-Minister of Labour, the Hon. R A. Wright, had called the master bakers and the union men together at Wellington to discuss the men's request for prohibition of work betwen 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. No agreement was reached there, because the employers wished for unrestricted hours, and the men wanted an enforcement of the award. The report of this conference is being prepared, and after it has been circulated among the delegates it will be placed before Parliament. Some sort of legislation on the subject is coming down this session, and the men are hoping for the best, ... Success of Sick Relief When the provident fund was started in the Auckland Gas Employees’ Union it was declared by sceptics that it could not be run successfully at the modest contribution of 6d weekly. It is nearing the end of the first year, and the union has met all sick claims to date, with the prospect of emerging with a smal surplus. There have been many calls upon this provident fund, which incidentally has been modernised as it has progressed, and its books have never been completely free from liability of greater or smaller degree. As for the-benefit which the men received, one man has just completed drawing his full-time allowance, and w'hile he has paid in £1 in contributions. he has received £l2 in sick relief. None will grumble at contributing thus to the assistance of fellowworkers —particularly in the face of such splendid results. Recovering Back Pay The reluctance of the Labour Department to prosecute employers except in extreme cases when instances of underpay are brought to light, is apparently being used by some firms to impose upon the workers and upon the laws of the State. It is alleged by Mr. J. Purtell, secretary of several unions, that this is so in the case of milk roundsmen, and a number of claims for back wages, ranging from £ 5 to £93, are being- made at the present time. Biscuit and confectionery workers are suffering somewhat from this deficiency’, according to Mr. Purtell, and a case is being brought against a certain factory which paid an employee £1 18s instead of £4 2s over a period of six months. Another girl this week collected £9 11s back pay, representing a deficiency' of 8s a week over several months. It is just as well these cases are being ventilated and squared up. “Arbiter” recalls that one confectionery factory sacked all its employees—men, women, boys and girls—just before last Christmas so they would not have to comply with the award and pay them for the statutory holiday's. This is 100 per cent, point-working, without question.