CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1921, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR ALLIANCE. (To the Editor.) Dear Sir,—The paragraph on this subject from your Wellington correspondent in your recent issue only tells a part of the story, and I therefore ask a little space from you in order that the position may be made perfectly clear. The importance of the presence of three Labor M.’sP. at our annual smoke concert will, I am sure, become doubly so when I tell you that M.'sP. of other shades of political opinion were invited and stayed away although Parliament rose that particular evening at. 9.15. To say. however, that a good understanding has been arrived at between our organisation and the Alliance of Labor is not correct, although I must frank- i ly admit that the Post and Telegraph (nan is i I very interested in the Alliance at tho present ■ moment. The reason for this interest arises | mainly from the fact /that the Post and Telegraph official has been told bj’ the Department and by the Postmaster-General that he has no right, to be heard or considered when a policy of reducing v/ages or altering working conditions is on the cards. Naturally, viewing the right of industrial unions in this connection, and noting the fact that the railway oragnisations are consulted on behalf of tfcir members, while the Minister of Education has openly intimated that he seeks the co-opera-tion of the teachers in this and other matters, the Post and Telegraph official feels bis helpless position very keenly. Being imbued with the belief that he should have the same rights and liberties as' other useful citizens, he Is not satisfied to allow matters to rest where they are. The department appears adamant; the minister will not give way, so the Post and Telegraph man is right up against it. Under such circumstances you would, I think, expect him to look for a remedy. In exploring possible channels of relief, he is. among other things, investigating the Alliance of Labor, and that is where the position stands at present. It is c. plain case of cause and effect.

As to “Mr. Massey's obvious reluctance to touch civil servants' pay,’’ this may arise from a variety of causes, the correct one being probably carefully withheld. But I can assure you that Mr. Massey assured our service in June last year that he was agreed to the principle of salaries and wages being in line with the cost of living figures—a ten per cent. movement cither way to lead to necessary adjustments. Well, the official calculations ! show, unmistakably, that a reduction on this j basis,is not yet due, and perhaps Mr. Mis- I sey's hesitation is due to a reiuetance to reduce a large section of workers below the bread and butter line. I hope so, at any rate, for the average salary of the rank and file, telegraphist, clerk, etc., in this department is only equal to 16s Gd per day, while the average for the rank and file postmen and lineman is barely Ils 6d per day. If tnose advocating reductions on these rates of pay will enter into a bond to accept proportionately less rent (many of them are landlords), :or will reduce the rates of interest (many of I them mortgage holders), or will reduce proportionately the prices of tea, sugar, butter, bread, bacon, etc. (many of them are dealers in these articles), then I can assure., | them that the Post and Telegraph man will ! accept his wage reduction, because he will know that he can carry on. But he cannot accept quietly any proposal to reduce his income without this corresponding relief, be-/ cause it means going on short allowance or going without many things which are household essentials, and obviously, he cannot accept the Department's contention that it can reduce his income by twenty or fifty per cent, if it sees fit and not give him any right or opportunity to put. forward his side of the [story before the cut is made.—l am, etc., H. E. COMBS. Secretary. , Wellington November 11.