Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 476, 4 October 1928, Page 11

Trades and the Workers

By “

"ARBITER”

UNION MEETING DATES Thursday, October 4 (To-night) .. . , . , _ , Thursday, October 4 (To-night) .. Workers Thursday, October 4 (To-night) .. RonVarid ?w rS i Ed b caU onal Thursday, October 4 (To-night) . P and Twine Workers (annual) Thursday, October 4 (To-night) .. ‘ 1 Women's Branrh r^„ WO n kC P Monday, October S “ “ n a branch Labour Party Tuesday. October 9 ** * - Painters Wednesday, October 10., ,*.*.*•** ** " " * •• storemen Wednesday, October 10 ’ • •• •• L.R.C. Gas Employees

The Ropo and Twine workers have scheduled their annual meeting for this evening. This will take place in tho Trades Hall. The market for unskilled workers in Auckland is still anything but satisfying. although slightly better than it vas a month or two ago. The secrefary of the General Labourers’ Jnion advertised for six men at the beginning of this week, and during the day close on -100 men called at the office for the jobs. * * * The Freezing Workers’ dispute, which is to come before the Arbitration Court for consideration, is to be heard to-day. The Court has nearly completed its Auckland business, and after a day or two at Hamilton, the members have very little left to clean up in this district. • • * Mr. K. F. Barter, secretary of the Amalgamated Engineers’ Union, is in Christchurch, where he has gone to investigate further the case of the New Zealand motor mechanics, whose dispute was heard at Wellington recently, but about whom no agreement was reached. Discussion of conditions in the Southern capital might roduce something more productive of progress. • * • When asked recently if the Government intended to send a New Zealand representative to the International Labour Conference at Geneva, the Pr me Minister gave no definite reply. He stated, however, that he was in favour of the move. It is doubtful if anything will eventuate this session to bring to fruition this desirable object, but it is something to have the Prime Minister on this side. Year in Review The annual meeting of the General Labourers was held last evening, when the work of the year was reviewed and officers for the current year e'ected. In consideration of the bad industrial period through which the country has passed, the union has had a fairly good year, though the membership vseil - jetted violently through hundreds of men being out of work. Therj still a large number who are marked ofC, although their membership as unionists is retained.

Apprentices Get Less According to the pronouncement of the Arbitration Court, any new apprentices entering the painting trade will commence at a basis of pay 1 >wer than that received by those who are already established there. This is disappointing to the workers, who were secure in their belief that once the Conciliation Council had agreed upon a certain course, the Court studiously avoided any interference with agreed points. In addition, there is the pronouncement of another Judge of the New Zeaiand Supreme Court that this procedure was adopted as a precedent, and alterations were made only at the direction of the parties concerned. In this case conciliation agreed, and the Court has altered.

Labour Legislation When a Labour deputation approached the Prime Minister recently, Mr. Coates explained that it was not the intention of the Government to give legislative effect to the recommendations of the Economic Conference, but if time permitted the questions of immigration and unemployment, as well as that of workers’ compensation, would be dealt 'with before the House rose. There were sei'ious difficulties, he said, in the way of legislating along the lines of the conference recommendations. It was pointed out by members of the deputation—which represented the Alliance of I.abour and the National Legislative Committee—that unless some tangible result of the conference could be reflected in the Statute, it was doubtful whether the Labour movement would trouble to send delegates to another industrial conference, such as had been proposed by the Prime Minister. “More waste of the country’s money,” is the way it is put by Mr. J.

fo Ur t t h e i I ' la ° 8 n t e c^f t e h r e e n te UCklanti de,e * ItCS * * m Communists Would Cut Rates t 0 Cp ““ u "if ta ‘"New York are billing to work below the scale agreed to bv an ? xxr International Ladles Garment Workers’ Union. El .° ln ' general manager o£ the 9 OUncil of C‘oak, Suit and t Manufacturers, quotes Louis By.leadfr of the Communists: “I am , ln ? the workers to work piecework; to work under the scale, as low c s ~j dollars to 30 dollars a week; to work single time for overtime.” * » • Wages Forced Down ..9 n account of consistently bad conaiuons, all the railway trade unions in England have endorsed an agreement a reduction of wages by 2* per cent. The negotiations were conducted in an atmosphere of moderation and reason, both sides recognising the necessities of the economic situation, io the men the agreement is a hitter potion, and all there is to be said for it is that its acceptance saves them from possibilities even more bitter. At the end of 12 months it may be terminated by three months’ notice, and the workers are hoping that by that time reviving trade will justify a return to the old standard of wages. It is estimated by Mr. J. H. Thomas that the effect of the reduction of per cent, on the wages of all grades of railway workers will be a saving on labour costs to the companies of nearly £3,000,000 a year. The reduction is also to apply to the salaries of the higher officials, and has been accepted by the railway directors. * * * Skill versus Youth Arbitrary discharge of workers, regardless of fitness at a determined age, appears to be becoming a general policy of employers, according to the Secretary of Labour in America. The tendency, he said, is to fix the age of retirement at a limit progressively lower. “This policy is unsound,” he said. “Science has lengthened the life of the worker, and machinery is doing heavy work formerly done by the worker’s physical strength. Skill and experience in a worker are more valuable than mere physical strength, and the skilled worker of 60 is apt to be a greater asset to his employer than the inexperienced worker at 20.”

Lesson to Industry After witnessing how the film indushelped itself by producing evidence before Parliament for the substantial alteration of the Film Quota Bill, Mi'. E. J. Howard, Labour member for Christchurch South, has a remark to make in writing for a Southern journal. The Bill proposed to tax the films to the extent of about £20,000 annually, but by persistent representation the renters and exhibitors had this reduced to about £5,000 or £6,000. “It does not take a very wise man to see how much has been saved to the film industry as a result of their active work on their own behalf,” Mr. Howard says. “The results achieved by the picture men should convey a lesson to other branches of industry. Especially should the manufacturers take a leaf out of the book of this industry. If our secondary industries are to live—and they must live—then those in this branch of productive industry must get busy. It can be done if we want it done.”

Out of Coal for Ever It is estimated officially that there are well over 200,000 miners in England who never will find work again in the coal industry, and who remain in what are termed “frozen masses” in the isolation of the coal fields. The Prime Minister. Mr. Baldwin, has issued an appeal to all British employers, asking them to do their best to take on some of the surplus miners. Acting upon the advice of the Industrial Transference Board, he sturgests that, even at the risk of these men becoming again unemployed, they should be got out of their own districts and put into the industrial stream elsewhere. While there is unemployment everywhere, it is less acute in the southern half of England than in the north, and, given the sympathetic will of employers, there are innumerable openings in which men can be placed without making the conditions of the local labour market much worse.