THE TAILORING DISPUTE

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1920, Page 2

THE TAILORING DISPUTE

To the Editor. Sir,—May I be allowed a few lines of your valuable space to correct a statement made, by the fudge during the hearing of Uie tailoring dispute in Chrlstchurch, that the "teaim system" in Taranakl is paying fifty per cent higher wages than the general tailors of the district. This statement is not correct. I know tailors (not team system workers) In this district are being paid very good wagesi One tailor, I know. Is being paid £O, and another £5 ss, and several from £4 10s to £5 per week. I made up a tailor's wage average working piece wr>rk and he was receiving £5 0a 6d per week for the last six months. Women coat hands are being paid from £2 12s Cd to £3 per week. I know for a fact the team system Is not paying fifty per cent higher wages than what is here quoted. Referring to the leadlne article which appeared In your paper of Friday, 2(lth Inst., It is quite a true statement that the team system robs the workers of their Individuality, and it is also a true statement that tho team system robbed married men and a single unan of their work, and their places were taken by girls from a factory receiving not half of the wages paid to the men. Then, again, the same article In the above mentioned paper reads: "That such men rave about the tyranny, etc., of their employers," which Is contrary to fact. Every tailor, employer had tailor employee agreed and worked harmoniously, with the exception of one firm in the Industrial district The article also upholds a system which condemns piece-work and then quotes Mr. J. G. Barnes, the well-known and trusted labor leader's writings upholding the piece-work system, which goes to show the inconsistency of the article. The tailors of Taranakl did not want to stop the output of garments, nor reduce wages, nor abolish the tcoim system, nor did they rant and rave about the tyranny of their employers In this district or Chrlstchurch district. They onlytried hard to stop teaming factory-made garments being sold as tailor made. —I am, etc., President of the Taranakl Tailors' Indus* ' trial Union. [We do not propose to enter Into a discussion regarding the "team" or any other system or the amount of wages paid, for such a discussion can more appropriately appear in our advertising than In our news columns, but we may remark that Mr. Besley, In his evidence, before the Arbitration Court, emphatically denied that tho system adopted by him was similar to the old "taauns" system, and that his staff gave evidence in support of his system, which was afterwards approved by tho Court. Also that he claimed to be paying 90 per cent over award rates, not 50 per cent more than his competitors. The point of our article was that certain sections of workers—and the Chrlstchurch tailors were one—opposed methods that made for greater output, when the paramount necessity of the times is greater production. The fact cannot be disputed by anyone who reads the papers and observes what is happening about him every day.—Ed.]