Another Cut Coming
Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 299, 22 November 1922, Page 2
About this newspaper
Another Cut Coming
Iff AItBITKATIOff
COFRIV
:■"■- A-. three-shilling cut is shortly to be sliced from the wages of workers under Arbitration Court awards.. To give this further push of the tollers into poverty an aspect of justice, the Court heard "argument" last Thursday in Wellington, tho sitting being held in Bellamy's in the Parliamentary Buildings. -
*;■ ' Mr. J. McCombs, M.P., who was to -have represented the Alliance of Lab-" our and the Wellington, Otago, and *' Canterbury Trades Councils, did not 1 appear. In explaining his absence, t Mr.. J. Read, President of the Welling-"i ton Trades and Labour Council, said he : might have come had he not bean " afraid of the impossibility of: getting back in time for his Parliamentary ■ campaign owing to the shipping strike. * Mr. McCombs, however, had ' .posted his address. ■ Before hearing Mr.. T. Bloodworth, who appeared.for.the Auckland Trade . Anions, the Court decided Miss': . Cossey, wiio represented women workr. . ens..in, Auckland. ,'lt was' decideel .to have Mr. 'McCombs's speech read if if ■ arrived tho ' following morning. SWEATING- AMD CtRINDINO- V : >-<--'j;-.--. ..-woSiEN. *'.■*. '.;. Miss; Cossey : said 'she represented:: ' oyer 2000 woitien workers. They wish-sd'' t*?' protest' agalhsf'atiy reduction, holding that the present wages were only sufficient to provide a bare existence. Sho produced a costume to; show that at least one firm in Auck- j land had . not reduced the prices of J clothes .since the last cut in wages, j The costume cost £7/7/- new, and a j few alterations valued by tailors at j 2/12/0 ware charged at £6/G/-. '.'Rub- j - bisk" had decreased in price, but it I wag not economy to buy it. Butter | and tea might have come down, but! rents were going up. Many of the best tradeswomen had had to leave their trades on tho,last reduction of wages, ' as:they could not meet the cost of living. The future of .the Empire depended on these. women, and they must be protected. They had done their share in the war. If wages were reduced .again, all she could do was to advise the girls to leave the trades and go on to domestic work. His Honour said he would like more figures on the subject of board. : It was difficult to get reliable figures. Miss Cossey said women had to pay board.on the same basis as men. ' His Honour-said ; rents were about 'the only thing that had gone up within the past few' months', and, some of them, for single l rooms were a scandal. It was a-regular, swindle in some .-•cases. Provision had been made in an Auckl and tearoom award * whereby •girls receiving under a certain wage had. been "exempted-from the reduction. '''•■' Mr. Bioodw or lira " speech was an able exposure of the injustice of re-, dticing th© .worker*'" standard of living, Ifc will he published in the next issue of ißte Miiorilaiid Worker. •For the employers, Mr. B. L. Hammond argiied that they wanted to reduce wages to secure a fair standard jof living. Nobody laughed!
