EFFETE ARBITRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 June 1922, Page 6

EFFETE ARBITRATION.

AUSTRALIA’S BIG PROBLEM. OLD SYSTEM OF BARGAINING ADVOCATED. A striking commentary of the present industrial system in Australia, the failure there of the arbitration system, and an expression of the view that recourse may soon be had to the old system of bargainings between employer and worker were expressed by Mr. T. C. List, president of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, after his return from a health trip to Australia, which he was revisiting after a lapse of twenty years. “Will a strike be precipitated by the shearers of Australia?” was the question put by a Dominion reporter to Mr. List, when he disembarked from the Ulimaroa. “The impressions I formed from conversations with many men in a position to entitle them to speak with - authority is that there will be no strike,” replied Mr. List. “The graziers of the Commonwealth are absolutely determined not to recede from their intention to stand by the new award, and not give way t-o the threat of the shearers, who want the same wages as those provided for in the Queensland award. For some time the graziers have been quietly organising, and are in a position to command a good supply of free la’bor, in case of emergency. Whatever inconvenience or sacrifice may be entailed, they will carry on operations this season without the sanction of the Shearers’ Union. The sheepowners realise that an end has got to be put to the extravagant wages and harassing conditions that have been imposed on the industry in recent years by a complaisant Arbitration Court, and, if a stand has to be made, no better time than the present can be chosen.” NOT UNANIMOUS FOR STRIKE. The shearers, however, do not appear to be unanimous in holding out for the Queensland rate, added Mr. List. They admit that conditions are more difficult in the northern State than in the south and west. There are greater distances to travel between stations —in the far north areas are reckoned by the square mile, rather than by the aere—greater heat there reduces output- They are consequently indicating to eheepowners that they will be ready to accept work on the boards, “There is another reason why the possibility of a strike is not seriously entertained,” said Mr. List-. “It would involve the affiliated unions, the transporters, wharfies, and coal miners. Times are not what they were. Australia, like New Zealand, but perhaps in a lesser degree, is feeling the stringency that ie affecting the whole of the world, and their sinews of war are not particularly strong at present. There is more unemployment than there has been for years. The workers in employment are not inclined to imperil their positions. The cost of living is still high, and must remain so while wages are fixed without consideration to the state of trade or markets, and whilst so many restrictions are placed upon industry by the Arbitration Courts.” “ARBITRATION OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS.” “Would you discuss the present danger of the lapse of the arbitration system in Australia?” Mr. List was asked. “This is a‘very important matter,” he said. “There is a steadily growing feeling in Australia that the arbitration system has outlived its usefulness. For the last eighteen years the wages under it have been steadily increasing; during the war years, they, of course, jumped. The men were then awarded practically all they asked; there was any amount of support for arbitration. The Australian Workers’ Union proclaimed its loyalty to it. It paid. Now that the Court has reduced wages, the same union openly defies it, and talks of striking; indeed, orders its members to strike rather than accept the new award. It is a case of ‘Heads, we win; tails, you lose.’ The graziers and others naturally cannot see that a system so lop-sided is of any value to them, and would welcome a return- to the old system of - bargaining. . The arbitration system, they say, is entirely ineffective when its decrees can be flagrantly disregarded, as is being done. UNABLE TO ENFORCE JUDGMENTS “The Court itself is unable to enforce its judgments in respect of the men. That has been repeatedly proved. But it can and does enforce its decrees in regard to employers. The law is therefore regarded as lop-sided and unfair. Further, it is pointed oiit that, rather than promoting industrial peace, it has made for industrial war. It has encouraged the creation of disputes, and converted trivial disputes into major ones. Labor agitators have had a fine innings, and the simple truth is that the employers are tired of such treatment. The Federal Government itself, as in the case of the coal trouble after the armistice, over-ruled the Court, and superseded its judgments. Then, it is shown by the Government Statistician’s figures that the output of work has in recent years decreased by nearly one-third. Apprentices are expressly discouraged, and the result is that skilled men, in almost any trade in Australia, are becoming scarce, and the army of the unskilled is continually growing.” SCARCITY OF SKILLED MEN. “ ‘See that building over yonder,’ said the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, pointing to a big structure going up in Swanston Street, ‘I will guarantee not more than ten per cent, of the men on it are skilled, in the fullest meaning of the word.’ This is indicative of the general feeling that the arbitration 'system has been inimical to the best interests of the workers themselves, and consequently to lhe country. They admit that in theory the system is admissible, but, judged on its actual results, it is a failure. As a result, they believe its abolition is a matter of national urgency and importance. The forty-four-hour week is regarded generally as a fiasco. It has, directly or indirectly, had the result of curtailing many industries and closing others, such as the ironworks at Newcastle, and the timber mills in Victoria and elsewhere. The men themselves, or at least the more thoughtful of them, realise that it has gone too far, and it will not be sur- ■ taring if tail ifijfticai Act w not re*

pealed in the near future. Employers told me frankly that, unless it was, they could not carry on in the face of the outside competition they have now to contend against. PUTTING ITS HOUSE IN ORDER.

“Australia sincerely desires to put its industrial house in order,” said Mr. List, in conclusion, “and it desires the help, not the opposition, of the workers, realising that the interests of both can only be promoted by increased production, and the removal of the short week and the numerous restrictions imposed by the arbitration system in recent years. Until the last two or three years, the decreased production was not such a vital matter. Then there was a market for almost all products at any price. Conditions have changed. Despite heavy duties, European and American products are coining in, and successfully competing with the local products, and, if the industrial fabric is to be preserved, radical and immediate alterations must soon be made in the directions referred to. Australia is a country of magnificent opportunities, and great natural advantages. Whether they will be taken advantage of rests with the people, and especially the workers themselves. To do so, all sections must give and take, bear and forbear, having for the goal not altogether the promotion or enrichment of their own particular interests, but the welfare of the whole country. We in New Zealand should pull to gether' with Australia wherever we can, and remove all barriers to a free commercial intercourse, because our interests are bound up intimately with those of Australia, a fact which must become more and more manifest as time goes