Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 494, 25 October 1928, Page 12

Trades and the Workers

By

"ARBITER"

UNION MEETING DATES

Thursday, October (to-night) Plumbers’ Educational. Thursday. October 25 (to-night) Quay Street Carriers. Monday, October 29 Bricklayers. Monday, October 29 W.E.A. Wednesday, October 31 .. .. .. Carpenters.

Mr. R. F. Barter, secretary of the General Engineers, will start his organisation visit to the North Auckland on November 7. After that he will cover the Thames district. Mr. W. Sill, secretary of the butchers, has returned from Poverty Bay, and is now at Hamilton, lie will return on Monday. Mr. T*. Webb, well-known figure in Kew Zealand Labour circles, has been in Auckland for some days on business for the co-operative miners of {he West Coast. He is to leave this fcity before the week-end. • * * Stonemasons in Conciliation The dispute involving the stonemasons and monumental masons, Which was partly heard in conciliation at Auckland recently, and adjourned for a conference between employers and the men, will be recalled in a short while, conciliation proceedings having been re-established. The commissioner. Mr. P. Hally, has not yet fixed ft date for the hearing. Price of Folly It Is estimated in a cable from Melbourne that 1,500 striker unionists there will never recover their jobs. Perhaps if they had had their organisation worked properly in the lirst place, and not made such a mess of the strike, things would have been different. It seems there is a right and a wrong way to go about even a strike* • * * Arbitration Held Up On account of the removal of Mr. Justice Frazer from the Arbitration Court to the Supreme Court Bench as a relieving judge, several industrial disputes are held up. There is the general engineers and motor mechanics. which were to have been discussed at Christchurch next month, and several other questions which were being prepared for the court’s consideration. Nothing definite has been announced as yet, and those figuring in industrial cases must postpone them until the Supreme Court Bench is relieved and the arbitration judge returns. • * • Political Discretion One of the most effective pieces of political discretion accomplished by the Prime Minister this year was the appointment—after the persistent agitation of Labour members in the House—of a committee to investigate the question of unemployment. On the day following the issue of the Labour Party’s platform, Mr. Coates announced that the unemployment committee already had been appointed. That is very nice, but aeons too late —as the Labour members will say. The two workers* representatives on the committeee, Messrs. O. Mcßrine and J. Roberts, probably will have nothing to do on the job till after the elections, which are eclipsing everything on the public horizon at the moment, g) p * The Nark A nark Is a person who deliberately nullifies good work which is being accomplished by somebody else. This description—however crude —fits some people who are tramping the streets of Auckland at the present time presenting people with collection boxes for unemployment relief. These boxes are not. authorised, and should not be subscribed to by the public. The workers* unemployment committee, which is operating actively at the Trades Hall, will not accept monetary donations, but insists that benefactors give their money into the hands of the Mayor’s fund, where it will be supplemented by a £1 for £1 subsidy for relief work. The people with the collection boxes are narks, and their efforts to secure money are reflecting upon the good work of the energetic committee. mm* Farm Wages Low Wages of all classes of farm labour in the United States are below wages a year ago. according to the Department of Agriculture. The reduction, it i:; stated, “is probably due to the larger supply of available farm labour.’* There is no demand for harvest labour in the Middle West wheat fields. Automatic machinery has replaced these travelling job-seekers. • m * Women Must Work Above The Indian Government has published draft regulations to be consid- |

f ered this month, prohibiting the employment of women underground in mines, provided, however, that in the coal mines in Bengal and Biharorissa, central province, and in the salt mines of Punjab, the number of women employed from April, 1929, shall not exceed the average number employed in 1626. It is further stipulated that a 10 percent. annual reduction shall be made thereafter so that all women may be excluded by April, 1939, and also all women employed and working underground in all other mines may be excluded as from April next year. Looking for Help The Workers’ Unemployment Committee, which has established itself at the Trades Hall, has become strikingly active in soliciting the support of institutions in and around the city. Racing and trotting clubs have been approached, with facts and convincing figures, and every time the representatives were accorded a good reception, with a promise of support. The Chamber of Commerce members were particularly impressed, and promised to assist in every possible manner. The secretary of the committee, Mr. H. C. McCready, is enthusiastic for the success of the committee’s efforts, and is anxious to refute the suggestion of the Prime Minister that the local committees do more harm than good in finding the cause of the unemployment. “The Government will deal with the cause—that is their job,” he said yesterday, “but in the meantime we are trying to find a remedy for the effect. It is not correct to say that these committees are ignorant of the position. These men will take any job anywhere, but we are anxious to get the conditions in the country relief jobs improved.” Meetings of this committee are held every morning at SL Matthew’s Hall, where the interests of the -men are w'atched. Steps are being taken by the committee not to overlap with the work of the Labour Bureau. * * * Industrial Reform This is the Labour-like suggestion of the Council of the National Liberal Federation in England:—ln order to secure greater efficiency in production and greater justice in distribution, the machinery for co-operation in industry should be improved by—(a) The establishment of a Ministry of Industry with a representative council; (b) The development in every industry of a representative industrial council equipped with adequate knowledge and enabled under proper safeguards to obtain legal force for its decisions; and (c) The establishment of statutory works councils in every industrial establishment of a defined size. The rules of such establishments should provide adequate safeguards against unjust dismissal. The wage system of every industry should include minimum wage rates, and, wherever practicable, a system of profit-sharing. There should be a systematic campaign to bring about a wider distribution of the ownership of industrial capital. * * * Trade Union Policy Conciliation is the keynote of the new Trade Union Council policy in England. Three methods of achievement were viewed in the outlined proposals. First to work toward a universal stoppage of industry in the hope of accomplishing something for the workers in the ensuing revolution; secondly to stand aside and tell the employers to get on with their job, while the unionists fought sectionally for improvements, and thirdly to say that the trade union movement is not only interested in the prosperity of industry but that it is going to have a voice as to the manner in which it is carried on. Faced with the situation that now prevails in the country, the council has taken the view that the third course was the only one that it was possible to take it if the trade union movement was to endure as a living, constructive force. That policy affords the best hope of raising the status, security and standard of living of the workers whom the council represents. At all events, a very grave responsibility would have been taken by anyone who refused to consider the possibilities of such a course, or who neglected to take any opportunity that offered of pursuing it.