LABOR AND THE UNEMPLOYED.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1922, Page 4

LABOR AND THE UNEMPLOYED.

The. attitude of the Taranaki Workers’ Council regarding the rate of pay being paid the unemployed is difficult to understand, though it is significantly on all fours with the attitude assumed by the labor organisations in Wellington and other places. The local union has decided to withhold “any official representation on the relief committee until the principle of paying award wages is adopted.” This is a very dire threat, and the relief committee will take due notice. The action of the union may achieve one thing only—it may have the effect of curbing the generosity of the public who have been appealed to for assistance for the men and their dependents who are out of work and suffering hardship. This would be a great pity, and if it were that members of the union who are parties to the resolution would be the only sufferers, such a result might not be deplored, but the public have to consider the suffering wives and children, and do what is possible to alleviate their distress. One might have expected that labor would have commended the praiseworthy efforts to help their unfortunate fellows, but with them the observance of award conditions of payment are paramount to every other consideration. fail to see that one reason why there is so much unemployment at the present time is the operation of the minimum award rate. Many people would be glad to find employment for those out of work if they could be assured of getting the work done at a cost within their means, but they are unable and unwilling to pay the high rates fixed by the Court-for labor that is in so many eases inefficient, and so the work is not put in hand. The idea of the Labor Council evidently is that the men, their wives and children should he allowed to .starve rather than the men should work at 12s per day instead of the 14s 8d prescribed by the Arbitration Court. They overlook the fact that the work is purely of a relief nature, arranged to meet an emergency, and that the funds have to he voluntarily subscribed. Also that! amongst the men employed -on the relief works are many who have had no experience whatever of the kind of work on which they are engaged, and therefore are unable to earn 9s, let alone the 12s that is being paid them. Pay the 14s 8d a day and there will be no inducement for the men to seek work elsewhere. The present work, it has been made a-bundantly clear, is purely a stop-gap —something to tide the unemployed and their dependents over a difficult period—and must be regarded as such. The Labor Unipn could show th? regard they profess for the welfara of the unemployed by' themselves subscribing funds to make up the difference in pay; or, better still, make a levy upon the unionists in the town for assistance towards the fund. By these means the union would show its sincerity in connection with the cause they profess to have at heart. Meantime we hope their action, which naturally comes as a cold-water v douche to those who are actively helping the unemployeel, will not deter the public from assisting the fund, bearing in mind that whatever is done by misguided and illogical labor, the women and children have to be provided for in some manner and that every penny will be wanted in order to tide them over the remainder of the winter months. It may be that the average worker at present unemployed requires more and not less than a living wage, as the union says,, but the point is that half a loaf surely is better than no bread, and with all the assistance available and in sight it will be no easy matter to provide for all, particularly if the Labor Union passes further resolutions like the one in question, which must alienate the support of the public upon whose liberality the existence of the fund depends.