Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 784, 3 October 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

By “ARBITER.”

No apologT is made by “Arbiter” this week for devoting most of the “Trades and the Workers” notes to the various aspects of the unemployment question, for this problem is uppermost in the minds of the workers at the present time. The attitude of a great many of the out-of-works is one of bewilderment at the extravagant promise made by the Prime Minister in Parliament, offering to clean up unemployment within five weeks from Saturday, September 28. They simply cannot see how it is to he done. At the end of last week there were 812 men registered at the Government unemployment bureau. As these are exclusive of those who failed to register, it will he seen that the fulfilment of the Ministerial promise will mean a great deal to the Auckland district alone in rectifying an undesirable state of affairs. WORK FOR 1,500 MEN Forestry, public works and railway undertakings appear to be the chief directions in which it is intended to employ men who are now' on the streets job-seeking. Swamp work, tree-planting and other developmental jobs, have been mentioned tentatively by the Prime Minister as the avenue through which 1,500 men are to be given employment—whether permanent or not is not disclosed. It is a significant fact, however, that when asked in the House whether provision had been made for those who are able to undertake only light manual work, Sir Joseph Ward did not have a ready answer. Each case would be treated on Its merits, he said, and if possible, suitable occupations would be found for these men. Telegrams, it is understood, have been sent to various departmental officials in some parts of the Dominion instructing them to make work for a certain number of men. In at least one instance this is going to be a. difficult business; but instructions are clear, and work must be made for them. CLEARING AND CULTIVATING

If this is the kind of thing that is to produce the solution of the unemployment problem, it is to be hoped that men will not be occupied in digging post-holes and filling them in again in order to keep themselves in work.

For example, the Land Settlement Development League has promised to secure qualified men for the land. They are ready and waiting to go ahead, the League says. Far better would it have been, then, to have employed great numbers of men (if they are to be employed on relief works) upon clearing and cultivating the land. It is useless merely to clear the difficult third-class land. It must be manured; and manured heavily. Well, let the unemployed men. do it and prepare it for those who are waiting to go on and produce. WANTED—A POLICY

Such a scheme would require a longheaded policy, and the expenditure of a large sum of money, but science has already proved what can be done with poor-class land. Let the State enlist the aid of science, and tackle the job in a thorough and businesslike manner—assuming -always that the solution lies in the direction of further land settlement. The money is being spent at the present time, and in a large measure wasted, because of the ultimately unproductive nature of its expenditure. One of the features of the Government’s attempt to eliminate the unemployed is the attention it gives to the trades where slack times have turned many skilled workers Into unskilled labourers. For example, the Auckland police station and the mental hospital are to be painted—two works which will keep about IS painters going for five or six weeks, thus enabling the others in the city to get around and split up between them the existing number of casual jobs that are going. Painters will have a day out tomorrow, when approximately 30 of them will be required to paint the ceiling of the new Civic Theatre, on Civic Square. This job is to be completed in a day, so all the resources of the unemployed painters will be called into play for the day. Two years ago it would have been impossible to secure this number of painters at call. Today it is simple, because there are more than that out of work. 1,000 HOURS OVERTIME

It was reported on Tuesday that the Otahuhu railway workshops were working two hours overtime every night, and the president of the Auckland Trades and Labour Council, Mr. J. Sutherland, has wired the Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. H. E. Holland, to confirm this from the Minister. If this happens to be true—and it emanated from an excellent source —it is serious. There are approximately 500 men working at the shops, which means that 1,000 hours are being worked every day, and paid for at overtime rates, which are equivalent to payment for 1,500 hours of work. This money could well be distributed among a number of men who, if paid at ordinary rates, would return more to the department than do the 500 working two hours at time and a-half.

The Northern Coal Mine Workers’ Union, Glen Afton Branch, has passed a resolution protesting against the ban on working-class literature and asking for its removal so that “all workers may read what they wish to read and not what the Government officials think they should read.” UNIONS AND LAW OTAGO PROPOSAL From Our Own Correspondent DUNEDIN, Today'. Plans are being made by the Otago District Council of the Alliance of Labour to engage a solicitor to watch all compensation claims on behalf of members of affiliated unions.

In the past unions have had to go to considerable expense to deal with compensation claims by workers and in obtaining legal advice. Each union usually has its own lawyer, but sometimes in a compensation case he acts for the other side and the union has to get another adviser.