Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 558, 10 January 1929, Page 10

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER”

UNION MEETING DATES

j Monday, January 14_ Tuesday, January 15 Stonemasons' Dispute The stonemasons’ dispute, now in its j fourth week has not yet been settled but a conference was to have been held ! yesterday afternoon. great interest j being displayed by both parties in the I result of the deliberations. The dispute concerns what is known j its the two-inch surfacing machine for j putting a surface on granite. The I workers argue that the use of this i machine is a breach of the award, while the employers say that Mr. E. C. Cutten's decision practically gives them the right to use this machine. An appeal is impending through the Arbitration Court. There is no dispute as to hours and wages, the stonemasons objecting on the grounds of injury to the health of workers, owing to the nervous strain caused by the vibration and the effect of the dust from the machine. “Reds” Attempt Control j Attempts by the “Reds” To control ! the activities of the railway workers | section of the A.W.U., with headj quarters at Melbourne, were discussed iat a special conference held a week or ! two ago. It was then pointed out that the Communists had started what they described as a rank and file movement for the purpose of ousting the present officials from office. When the conference adjourned yesterday no decision had been reached. Mr. G. Buckland, secretary of the A.W.U., said that the breakaway section appeared to have got into a fine mess with the money they had collected by the issue of a special ticket. “Whilst the convention of the union has not. so far, had the opportunity of considering the demands, over half of the money has already been spent.” said Mr. Buckland later. “Of £4OO collected over £ 200 has gone up in smoke. The men who were deluded into taking these special tickets are beginning to wonder whether their money is going the same way as the money collected for the bogus 0.8. U. a few years back. The chance of the A.W.U. getting £ 1 out of every ticket is remote, unless the secret channels from Moscow are tapped.” ** * * Arbitration Court The Arbitration Court will not sit at Auckland until the end of February, as Mr. Justice Frazer is at present busy on the Supreme Court Bench. As to whether his position is temporary or permanent it is not possible to say at present, but it is, extremely unlikely that he will return to the Arbitration Court. Among the industrial disputes that will come up in February for' settlement the cases of the Penrose Glassworkers, the Auckland Brick and Tile workers and the Auckland Dairy Employees will be held. The latter dispute affects the milk roundsmen of the city who are going for a six-day week. At present they work seven days a week, while those in the same business in Wellington work six days only. * * * Women in Coal-mines Some frightful working conditions are revealed by a report issued recently upon the labours of women in coalmines in India, who are asked to bear terrible burdens in the execution of duties quite without the sphere of their sex. Women are compelled to carry on their hips baskets containing 601bs of coal, which has to be transferred up a steep gradient to the mouth of the pit. Proposals have been advanced for a gradual reduction of the employment of women underground in the coal and salt mines, leading to elimination at the end of a period of seven years. By the representatives of the larger coalmines the proposals were accepted, but without enthusiasm and with the suggestion that the period within which the gradual reduction is to be effected smaller coalmines persisted in their attitude of strong disapproval. The main opposition to the prohibition of female labour in mines is based on economic grounds. Female labour is cheaper than male labour, and women are docile and work with greater regularity than men. It is feared that without female labour the cost of production will increase. Were the change to be introduced at once there would probably be a temporary increase in cost, but if, as proposed, it is introduced gradually the increased efficiency of the men, which may be expected to follow the elimination of women, the introduction of regular shifts, and the greater use of laboursaving appliances will minimise and may possibly overbalance the increase. . There are 33,841 females working in the mines. Financing Strikes In reply to an allegation that the recent shipping strike in Australia was controlled financially from Moscow, the Red Trade Union in Russia issued a statement giving this an emphatic denial.

Painter, Tramway Employ,*’ [ “The union conducting the it said, “is not affiliated to the hi. ] national and made no appli cat! J~ lf "' aid. Therefore we did not con” ” the sending of funds. Wheneti* help the strikes of other countriL publish the fact and the an ,„ through the Press. In order to , the strike one must be on the' and Australia is extremely dir 1 * Some Australian unions affiliated* 11 I eently formed a pan-Pacific li " ' Secretariat with headquarters** China, but we do not know when. 1 or not that organisation aidea present strike.” Unsafe Railways Figures of railway accidents , j workers and passengers in Ensl» ; are not assuring. In the ten y«c before 1927 the average number * fatalities among railway passed, was 9.3 per annum. Las: year - • passengers were killed, and in the tZ ten months of the present year 47 a sengers, as well as nearly a scorTt railway workers. These are aiarmi rises above the normal casualty , The companies point out that tv number of people killed on the rc h last year gives an average of 1, day. This is not very comfortine ,* those who must travel and who a seeking at least one safe method * transport. Communists Barred j The British Admiralty has decide ' that Communists shall no longer i* employed in any Admiralty estahli# ! ment or in the royal dockyards. Tv decision has operated in the case ;; | Mr. Percy Glading, a mechanic exam iner at Woolwich Arsenal, who »■ dismissed early this month. He is** member of the Amalgamated Entt, 1 eering Union, to which he appealed tosupport. The executive of the union met the Admiralty, but has been ac able to secure his reinstatement, ud has now referred the case to the Ge» eral Council of the Irade Unions Coe! gress. The Admiralty's policy toward Con munism generally Is given here:— “Communism is regarded as beine outside any political party. The Ad miralty regard this issue not as a noli! tical but as ft. revolutionary one. t; )6 Communist Party is avowedly a revo. lutionary party, with definite revo a ! tionary aims, and Communists carnet be looked upon as loyal workmen, par. Ocularly in such establishments as Woolwich Arsenal, or in the dockyards, where great damage and mischid might be done at a time of national emergency. We cannot entertain the suggestion that this action amounts ta any shape or form to political victimIsation.” * * . Shipworkers' Lot Worse The workers’ lot in the Home djekyard is not bright. A shipping magnate. Sir Alexander Kennedy, proposing success to a new vessel at a luncheon recently, said that the witter was likely to be much worse in the shipbuilding industry than the kst Only 36 per cent, of the industry’s building berths in this country wore occupied, and unemployment, bad as It was already, was increasing. Before the war Britain was building, roughly. 60 per cent, of the ships of the world. To-day our proportion was only 43 per cent. In face of these facts he did not think shipbuilders could be accused of undue selfishness if they addressed another appeal to British shipowners to make a special survey of the position. Employers Break Law There is apparently not much conscience among the German industrial bosses, for 220,000 iron and steel workers were thrown out recently by the closure of big works on the Ruhr. The employers declared a lock-out in defiance of a decree of the Minister of Labour, which gave binding force to the award issued on Monday by an Arbitration Court. The German law' m§.kes illegal the j closing down of factories as a combat- j ant measure after an award has been declared obligatory. The employers plead economic necessity, asserting that the wage rise ordered in the award would necessitate a rise in prices which th# trade’s position cannot stand. According to the law, however, they will be liable to pay damages to the trade unions. The employers tend to call the whole arbitration system in question. They complain that invariably the unions put up extreme demands, knowing that the Arbitration Board will fulfil at least some of them and that these would be declared obligatory. In this case the wage increases declared by the Arbitration Board were 7d an hour for the main body of workers, bringing the hourly wage to 7s lOd. The unions demanded 9s.