SALARIES OF LABOUR LEADERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3443, 24 March 1920, Page 7

SALARIES OF LABOUR LEADERS.

EFFECT OF £IOOO A YEAR.

The salaries of trade union efficials have always been «the cause of much jealousy and bad feeling in ‘the trade unions, and the ‘recent increases in the salaries of the ofiicials of theN.U.R. have -intensified this jealousy among‘ the raank and file in the Labourmovement (says the “Morning Post”). In the current issue of “Solidarilry,” a Syjndiealist paper which represcnus lthe Shop stewards and workers’ committees, this question of payment to trade union leaders is discussed by Mr E. 'l‘. Whitehead, of the Vehicle \\"orl:ers’ Union. “We of the Workers’ Committee movement,” writes Mr Whitehead, are not out ‘to wreck and destroy the trade unions. It should be our policy, however, to purge them and cleanse them, and transform them into the weapon with which to gain the world for the workers. As a first step it is absolutely necessary to abolish the present system of asniull army of well paid officials, ranging from Jimmy Thomas and his £IOOO a year, to the £6 and £7 a week organisers, alld,'as a preliminary move, the following resolution has» been. tabled in my own union, ‘the Vehicle _werl~:el's:——“That" the wages of ‘the chief oflicials of this union shlal be paid weekly, and shall be the wage of a. top grade L.G.O.T. ’bus driver, working a nominal week of 48 hours, and the wages of all other full-time employees shall be the similar wage of an L.O.G.TC. ’bus conductor.

The object of this proposal is to drive out of the unions ambitious men. “The place for ambitious men is not with the proletarian army’ in the class struggle,” says Mr Whitehead. “lVIon that want :1 high wage for ‘their brains, and are ambitious, should go ‘outside and help the capitalists, exploit the wage slaves. That is their spiritual home._’’ If a permanent official is given :1 middleclasg salary, “with power to save money and use it for ‘investing’ and bleeding other workers,” and living in 11. middle-class 11eighbOu1‘l100(l and wearing “well-out middle-class clothes, and entertaining on {L ~middle—elass scale, with his job and salary ‘the the more seeurepthe less industrial unrest. there is; it is :1 £IOOO to {L monkey-nut that his ideas change exactly as his economic position changes, and he joins the great. canons of Labour Bleeders.”

This comrade anticipates tha'f- the L.'Lboul'lcadel- with personal interests “will squeal like 'B, stuck pig at the idea of coming back to the position that he occupied as a worker once himself,” and such leaders “will rush off to Government jobs in sthe Ministry of This and thhe Minisl:ry of That: at high screws and fat ponsions.”

The Labour movement advocates brotllerhood and comradeship. The above is an example of the brotherly and comrzldoly feeling that prevails within the movement!