Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

By

A big tight will be waged this year for the election of a Labour Mayor and council for Auckland. Mr. Bloodworth’s chance for the Mayoralty is considered brighter than it was two years ago, while committees are working overtime in an attempt to consolidate the Labour vote on to those candidates who are to represent the workers’ cause on the council list. • * * Winter Prospects Bad There are still too many men hanging around the unemployment bureau in Gore Street. Labour here is disappointed because some impression has not been made on the glutted labour market, and the pre-election promise of tlio JPrime Minister that he would' have everything cleaned up in three months does not seem to hold so much water as it did in November. All trades are sharing the distress, and the prospects for the winter are not bright. Conference On Timber Timber merchants and millers have signified their approval of the Auckland timber workers’ proposals to call a conference of employers and men to formulate proposals to solve the timber industry’s problems. United representation to the Government will be necessary once unanimity is reached in conference, because without the cooperation of both sides nothing can be achieved. The Sawmillers' Federation secretary, Mr. Seed, will confer with Mr. E. J. Phelan on the question of a conference. The idea of solving timber problems now lies in the direction of persuading the Government to prohibit the importation of sawn timber so that hundreds of men would be employed within the country cutting it up. Some writers on the subject of timber do not seem to appreciate the fact that if sawn timber were prohibited the restriction would apply not only to cedar and other important factors in the importations, but to box timber, which now conies here in shocks, and which, in reality, costs the purchaser more than would tlie locally made box. This would keep some thousands of men in work, and would prevent the closing down of many small mills which are now faced with the necessity of putting their men off. Nothing very much can be done till Parliament meets, but the organisation of the industry preparatory to bombarding the Government could be accomplished almost immediately. The Workers’ Side A sound common-sense talk to bosses was undertaken by a member of the Rotarian movement in Australia recently, when Mr. E. W. Buyacott analysed the industrial position. ‘•Employers have taken too much out of the industry for themselves, and have been neglectful of the well-being a 9 l happiness of those they have employed,” he said. “By far too many industry is still looked upon as simply a business proposition, a matter of dividends, and not a human concern in which the happiness and well-being of all engaged should be the responsibility of those who have control. ‘‘Trades unionism has achieved great results for the working man, but as employers have been tyrannical in the past, so to-day we suffer from the tyranny of the labour unions. The

“ARBITER"

great labour trust is able to work just as much injury to social and industrial welfare as any other trust.” “True Labour never appreciated the burden the employer had to carry. It was that responsibility and risk that entitled the employer to a fair profit. But by far the most serious risk—thg.t of unemployment, with its tragedy for women and children—was taken by the working man. The solution of the problem would never be found by ignoring human feelings and human rights.” Overlapping In Industry The confusion of industrial regulations is recognised as one of the chief causes of unemployment in Australia, which is reported to be increasing in the States. The Premier of New South Wales, Mr. Bavin, after having conferred with other State Premiers in regard to the overlapping of Federal and State industrial awards, said he would invite representatives of trades unions to confer with him as early as possible. Mr. Bavin said he was asked by the conference in Melbourne, which was attended by the Premiers of Victoria and South Australia, to invite other Premiers to meet to formulate some plan for submission to the Federal Parliament, to cover the control of State officials by the Federal Arbitration Court, and also the overlapping of awards. The seriousness of the position was recognised by Mr. Bruce in his speech during the Federal referendum campaign, when he pointed out what a disaster the duplication of control was to the industries of Australia. * * * Workers’ Utopia? This is from America—the country which, we are given to believe, is tl 1 workers’ Utopia: The Secretary of Labour in the United States, James J. Davis, writing to the editor of several newspapers in Cardiff, where there were reported to be a million miners and dependents starving: “Here and there has been for many years in Europe, and especially since the Great War, an impression that all Americans are wealthy, and that poverty among us is conspicuous only by its absence. 1 wish indeed that the popular European impression were a true one, but no foreign impression has ever been more false. “It is true that the real wage of the American worker is twice as high as that of the worker in London, three times as high as that of the* worker in Paris, and more than four times as high as that of the worker in Brussels, Rome, and Madrid. “But the American worker is not dwelling in Utopia. No country can be considered Utopian when 86 per cent, of its people are poor. . . The brotherhood of poverty is world-wide —we share it with you.” Official figures quoted show the uneven distribution of the country’s wealth. One per cent, of the peopi’i own 59 per cent, of the wealth, 13 per cent, own 90 per cent., and S 7 per cent, own 10 per cent. “Nowhere in the land.” one newspaper says editorially, “is there evidence of a single industrial group in which the annual income of a wageearner is sufficient to enable him to support a wife and three small children in accordance with the low standard set by a group of employers.”