Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 652, 2 May 1929, Page 14

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER"

UNION MEETING DATES Thursday, May 2 {to-night) .. .. Electricians Monday, May 6 . Shipwrights Monday, May C Drivers Wednesday, May 8 .. .. .. .. Gas Employees Wednesday, May 8 L.R.C. Thursday, May 9 Plumbers’ Educational

Men’s Cause Outlined The Arbitration Court is still sitting at Auckland. It has heard the cases of the milk roundsmen and the stonemasons, and the decisions are expected shortly. Whatever might be the verdict of the Court on these two cases, none can say with any justification that good pleas were not advanced for the men. A great deal of time and trouble was spent in showing exactly how the men stood in respect to the six-day week for milkmen, and also how the stonemasons were placed in respect to their machines, and, everyone must confess, a creditable job was made of its presentation by the advocates and the witneTlfe* Court will probably finish next week. Is Zat So? There is a nasty rumour circulating in the city that a certain contracting firm intends to bring about 200 labourers across from Australia to execute a specific construction job in Auckland. If this is so, there probably will be a Dominion-wide protest, because, while this is reputed to be a free country in respect to the employment of labour as well as in a few other things, New Zealanders would be perfectly justified in asking that, if 200 men are wanted, they shall be employed from within New Zealand. Elections Keenly Watched Officials at the Trades Hall may be forgiven for allowing their attention to stray from their work to higher things during the past week. The proximity of the municipal election, concerning directly as it does at least six members of the Trades Hall personnel, has filled the minds of Labour supporters for the past week or so. Any defect w r hich might be noted in the polling for Labour’s nominees for the council and the mayoralty is not the fault of the campaign committee, headed by Mr. Jas. Purtell, for these people have worked unceasingly during the past few weeks to rally the Labour voters to the poll. Strictly speaking, Labour voters should not require much persuasion to do their civic duty, but in the majority of cases it has not yet dawned upon them that Labour’s failure to gain executive power in the community is due to the fact that the other side works while Labour leaves its work in the hands of a few, and in general sleeps complacently on. * • • Youth Holds Up Industry The chief engineer of an American vessel recently at Auckland tells us of an experience he had when managing a fish-cannery in Rangle, Alaska, recently. The cannery of which he was the executive head was doing a big seasonal business, and used for its labour boys and girls who spent their school holidays earning a side-line profit. Youth is precocious even in thf* labour market nowadays, however, and the conditions and pay did not suit the young workers. So they struck for something better, and hundreds of thousands of fish were left uncanned, and thousands of pounds in profits were lost to the company. The strike eventually was overcome by a revision in policy by the concern. The boys and girls were dismissed and mature workers engaged under award conditions. So that now this big industry, after being temporarily paralysed by youth, is forced to come to heel and employ full-grown labour in accordance with decent industrial principles. Cause of Coal Troubles Further trouble has developed this week in Australian coal mines. A sidelight upon the causes of these stoppages generally was shed recently by Mr. D. J. Davies, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, who said: “We admit that there have been stoppages that have been unwarranted and foolish in the extreme. Some of them we have been responsible for, but mine managers have also been responsible for a great many of them. The successful mine manager to-day is not the man with technical knowledge, but the man who can organise and control labour power. Some of our mine managers have not shown much competency regarding the management of their employees. The very nature of the mine workers’ life, the dangers he runs, the unsatisfactory conditions under which he works, help to breed a state of savage discontent with his lot. He gets cynical and breeds revolt. “The mine manager who does not understand that temperament is going to have trouble. Our overseas trade has been lost principally because other countries are now developing coal deposits that they have previously neglected. Every country to-day is attempting to be self-contained, as far I as power is concerned. Other factors for the loss of our oversea trade have j been the development of oil as a fuel, j the development of hydro-electricity, i and of electrically-driven machinery. ■ I feel sure we can never regain our j

lost markets. In the Maitland field we have exceptionally good gas fuel, and this may retain its oversea markets, but generally we must now depend on local markets.” Labour and Government A measure of approval is given to the policy of the present Government by the New Zealand Labour Party in its declared policy, which states that there is much that the Labour Party can support. “To the extent that legislation is introduced and the laws administered in accord with the programme of the Labour Party,” says the executive, “every member of the party in Parliament will support the Government. The conflict is, however, still in .progress. The enemies of Labour—the enemies of the people—are supporting the Government. The administrative acts of the Government as far as unemployment pay and policy are concerned are in conflict with the expressed policy of the Prime Minister. The heritage of New Zealand in so far as its public seri vices are concerned is menaced —and you may rest assured that whatever name is given to a party or government, that party or government •will be

fought with the full strength of Labour when its policj' conflicts with the progress and well-being of the workers with hand and brain.” Just how far this support of the Government will go through the coming session cannot be conjectured, but “Arbiter” anticipates trouble when Labour begins to press for legislation embracing Labour’s fundamental objectives, as assuredly will be done. Bird of Feace Had Flown An entertaining description of a peace-in-industry conference, held in Australia recently, comes from over the Tasman: Led by Mr. Donald Grant, and supported by well-known Domain orators an organised band from the Communist Hall took possession of the conference convened by Mr. Gilbert Taylour. as secretary of the New South Wales Foundation for the Propagation of Industrial Peace. From the outset it was evident that a difficult passage lay before the bird of “Peace,” if it was to make a nest in the bosoms of those who had attended ostensibly to assist it. Messrs. Grant and Taylour, it was obvious, knew much of each other, and of each other’s views, and within the first few minutes were exchanging bright personalities concerning the ways of anarchists, revolutionaries and traitors. The climax came when one of Mr. Donald Grant’s henchmen moved that it was time the meeting began and that the forceful Mr. Grant should take the chair. This he did amid much hand-clapping,, and there ensued a reliability contest of eloquence run riot, in which Mr. Grant, being louder of voice and wilder of gesticulation, carried most of the honours. Then, as suddenly, came the anticlimax. As a forceful young gentleman answering to the name of Hankyn was vociferously telling the audience where pacifism and revolution and the multiplicity of things in between stand in relation to one another, two portly uniformed policemen appeared at the door. Quickly and quietly all Mr. Grant’s militancy fell away from him and left him a penitent reformist, apologetically informing the gathering that, as they did not agree with Mr. Taylour’s ideas of the scheme of things, they had better quietly steal away. What remained of the meeting, fourteen earnest pacifists in all, proceeded I to listen to Mr. Taylour’s interrupted i monologue, but the spirit of the meeting appeared to have departed, and it broko up shortly afterwards.