Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 712, 11 July 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

♦- By

“ARBITER”

UNION MEETING DATES Thursday, July 11 (tonight). Plumbers’ Educational, Tramways 10 a.m. and S p.m.), and Related Printing Trades. Friday, July 12 _ Curriers Monday, July 15 Butchei's. Hairdressers and Furniture Trades

Mr. J. Purteil, of the Trades Hall, is organising down in the King Country. He will return at the beginning of next week. Mr. R. F. Barter, secretary of the Amalgamated Engineers, is in New Plymouth attending the Arbitration Court on behalf of his men. He returns tomorrow. Unions Quiet Things are quiet in trade union quarters in Auckland. Little extra employment is offering, and the unions cannot give any indication of a brighter tone in the market. Difficulty is experienced in keeping an accurate register of unemployed members, particularly by the large trade unions. It is frequently the practice for a man to register as out of work, and fail to notify his union when he secures a job. Others fail to register, and when they are called upon for their union dues, become indignant because they have', been out of work. Engineers’ Award The general engineers threshed their case out thoroughly at the Arbitration Court sitting in the South recently, and after the gloomy story of the employers had been told, the side of the men was advanced. Now a decision is awaited, and should be available in a short while. When this is issued, It should settle, for a

5, time at least, tlte question of the comprehensive award, which has occupied E | both sides for. many months.' Paid On Results , In most callings jobs are difficult to ' procure. But it seems there is a shortage of really good salesmen, i Men with pep and vigour-—men who - will take their setbacks as elements in the day’s work and push farther afield —are not often found in answer to advertisements designed to attract even the most Indolent of’ salesmen. After a few weeks on the road, most l of them are found wanting, and the i £ls and £2O a week which they had . visioned as coming to them from no effort fades into the distance. 1 Salesmen, above everyone else, are ' paid on results. Auckland seems to . have been overdone, and unless it is . left alone for a short while, will prob- ■ ably not yield a profitable field except L to only the top notch men on the road. [ Men and Machines Startling changes through labourdisplacing machinery and processes are placing men on the streets, said Secretary of Labour Davis, of U.S.A., in a recent address. The Cabinet member cited the revolution in the iron industry, where scientists have perfected a process whereby a few men can produce as much iron in 30 minutes as 350 men can produce under the old system in an entire working day. “The skill of these men is destroyed, and after a lifetime of labour they find their skill worthless. Many of

them are 50 years of age,” said Mr. Davis. The speaker said there are industries in his country that still operate on the 11 and 13-hour basis, and that this policy is indefensible.

Ten Millions Saved In justification of his decision to abolish the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, Mr. Stanley Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia, said last week that the present duplication of arbitration systems was costing industrymore than the whole of the Federal income tax, amounting to £10,000.000 annually. “The Government’s policy,” said Mr. Bruce, “will clear the decks in regard to the whole industrial postion is Aus-

tralia. because once the Feds*., authority <s out of the wav it wi n \7 open to every method to be adorns to try and handle ?he orr-MBjp. “ dustry.” ' . “ “You are facet with the <j uesti whether you can achieve an desire by letting the Commonwealth stay in the field, because the Common wealth’s powers are limited to arbltrT tion and conciliation, except with , gard to inter-State itsputes. ■jJJ result is that the conciliation pow« is practically useless and the arbiuw tion power can only function betweei the people w ho are actually parties ta the dispute. Whatever authority is n, ing to control industrial regulation that party must nave power to deal win. it in whatever way- is oest to suit the circumstances of individual Industrie* It is intolerable to go with tlje present position of duplication, because so many defects have been revealed (* it. One thing it has contributed u, has been the hideous uncertainty i» regard to industrial matters.”