LABOUR IN SAN FRANCISCO

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8437, 8 May 1907, Page 7

LABOUR IN SAN FRANCISCO

"NO PLACE FOR AUSTRALIANS." "Mr 'Colin McKenzie, bricklayer, who recently left West Maitland, Now South Wales, for San Francisco, has written to his friends thus concerning his experiences:—"l have had a trying time looking for work. There are a great number of men here to do the work, as many as forty or fifty on a job, and scores of others looking them up every day for a chance to get a start. I have been on ■nearly all of them, *and the answer is 'Full up; can't make room,'but at last l|was fortunate enough to meet a fellow from Johannesburg, and he given me a start. Bricklayers here will not give a stranger a job if they can possibly help it, keeping jobs open for their mates. It costs bricklayers 24 dollars to join the union, and they won't let you join straight away. You must first get a ..job before you can become a member. You have to be a citizen—that is, take out papers that you will become a citizen, and forswear King and country—so you see I have come to a beautiful place. Before you lift a trowel you have to show your ticket. There are over three thousand bricklayers here, now, and more coming every week, and they are now closing against taking any more into the lodged Jobs are all kept waiting for material, principally lime, and cement. I have not seen a.job built with new bricks. All old bricks from destroyed buildings are used, and when the old bricks begin to get scarce they will not be able to keep one quarter of the bricklayers going. "Work here is terribly rough. I am thoroughly disgusted at the style in which it is done—just thrown together. Plumbers are worse off than bricklayers, having to pay forty dollars down, then pass an examination, when they have to pay thirty dollars more, making seventy dollars to join the union. Failing to pass the examination, they lose twenty dollars. There are several from Australia doing labourer's work, not having enough funds to join the union. "I think San Francisco the most ungodly place a man was ever in. *They work at nearly all factories, ironworks, etc., on Sunday, as well as all kinds of amusements going on. If anyone inquires how things are here, I advise one and all not to . leave Australia for San Francisco. It : is no place for Australians."