Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 742, 15 August 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

By

"ARBITER."

Purchasing a Job Jobs are still hard to get. A man who came from the country a few months ago recognised this shortly after he arrived in Auckland. He recognised also that one does not get anything for nothing. So he advertised. offering a bonus of £5 for anyone who could get him a decent job. He received plenty of replies, some offering him a lucrative position hawking fish; another wishing to take him into partnership in a soap vending door-to-door business; still another hinting mysteriously at £7OO a year positions. His £5 is still in his pocket. It is pretty tough when jobs cannot even be bought. Poor Publicans! When the hotelworkers’ case was being put forward before the Arbitration Court at Wellington this week the employers raised the argument that business could not be carried on if the award rate of pay w-as increased. The advocate for the employees had an effective reply to this. He quoted from a newspaper report of a hotelkeeper’s bankruptcy proceedings which showed that the rental was more than £SO a week (plus rates) and the wages bill was £27 18s 6d. When the employers said that they could not pay any increase in wages to the already under-paid workers, he would suggest that the questions of goodwill and rental should be tackled before the employers asked the court not to increase wages. Disputes For the Court j The Arbitration Court always has \ plenty to do when it sits in Auckland. At the sitting to start on Monday next I there are seven industrial disputes in i which are involved applications for new awards, as given here:—Federated seamen (trawling section; abattoirs and freezing workers; theatre front-of-house employees; Auckland journalists; fish trade employees (other than fishermen); bacon-curers; brick, tile, pottery and clay workers. In addition there are about 20 compensation cases to be dealt with, a few apprenticeship questions, and one or two parties to add to awards. This business will probably keep the court iu Auckland for several weeks. * * 4 Labour’s Position Political labour has something to think about just now. All parties seem to be on the move, and organisation efforts are at their height. Labour’s big problem will come when the test on Mr. Coates's amendment to the Customs Amendment Bill comes before the House—if it does come before the House at all—in the debate on the committee stage of the Bill. If it is approved aud is accepted as a vote of no-confidence, the position will be acute. Labour has to decide whether it will follow its leader’s assertions that in no circumstances would it vote against the Government in the same lobby as Reform, or whether it will abide by its later statement issued from caucus that circum-

stances alone would guide the activities of the Party in House divisions. Whatever happens, it is to be hoped that Parliament will soon show some result of its use of the people’s money. Back To England A prominent member of the Labour movement in Canterbury, Mr. G. H. Thompson, is leaving New Zealand next month to take up a position as organising secretary of the Workers’ i Educational Association in Yorkshire, ; England. Mr. Thompson, who came from England about six years ago, has given very valuable strvice to the Labour movement. He was for two

years president of the Labour Representation Committee, and stood as a candidate for the Riccarton seat at the last General Election. Previously, he stood for an English seat at the 1919 election. Hotelworkers’ Wages The Arbitration Court had quite a lot to do in hearing the hotelworkers’ dispute at Wellington. In the final hearing on the question of wages, Mr. E. Kennedy, who appeared for the New Zealand Federated Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Industrial Association of Workers, asked the court to consider seriously the workers’ claims for a 44-hour week, and submitted that the Industrial Courts of Australia were in his favour. It was claimed, also, that the workers were entitled to a fair wage—to the court's own standard, which they were not receiving. The workers’ wages had been £2 7s 6d (cash) and £1 10s (food and lodging) total, £3 17s 6d. The court's basic wage was £4 Ss. The workers were receiving 10s 6d a week less than the court’s own declared wage.