The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 29, 1916. DILUTING SKILLED LABOUR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8461, 29 May 1916, Page 4

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 29, 1916. DILUTING SKILLED LABOUR.

The iradci unions do not seem disposed to admit that the extraordinary conditions arising out of the war must inevitably affect all labour questions, though they have caused many changes in almost every phase of life. Strong protests have .been made by the unions against the Government's proposal to allow returned 1 soldiers, who. are partly incapacitated, to take up work at their old trades at wages lower than the award rates; and now the iron and brass moulders of Dunedin "strongly object" to the Conciliation Council's insertion in the moulders' award of a clause providing for the employment of unskilled labour in cases in which the union was unable, within I seven days, to provide skilled [labour, these men to work undor certain conditions at uuder-rate wages, rising during a period of three years to the * minimum journeyman wage. The union' 3 argument was that the only method of entrance" to a skilled' trade was by apprenticeship, and that the clause-referred to opened the way to the flooding .of the labour market with'•imperfectlytrained workmen, llhis view is a

perfectly reasonable-one, but it is impossible to ignore- -the- position/:, that the war .has created with're-'1 gard to the; supply of skilled workers. The President of' tlie | Arbitration Court pointed ' out that the question of diluting 1 unskilled with skilled labour would probably, become.most acute, and the unions would have to take some measures to arrange a work-, ingl agreement. Art in the case of a shortage of union workers in any trade, the .onus.Us upon the union to.show that it can supply men needed by the 1 employers; otherwise there is;.no alternative but .'the 1 employment of nonunionists. The question of diluting skilled labour with unskilled workers has occupied.a great deal of attention in Great Britain, especially in connection with the output of munitions. .The removal of trade union restrictions on output M 7as first discussed at.a conference at Sheffield on March 5, 1915, between the Engineering Employers' Federation and various engineering trade unions. The result was the " Shells and Fuses Agreement," which ■made/ it possible for unskilled v men to work on shell-turning throughout the country under the same conditions as prevailed at Barrow and Elswick, which were the only places ...where she 11-turning had been done hitherto on a large scale. This was conceded in return for safeguards with regard to the employment of the skilled men thus displaced, the maintenance of piece-rates, and the immediate restoration, after the war,, of the practices thus waived. The principle laid down was that no skilled man should be employed on work which could be done by semi-skilled or unskilled male_ or female labour. Every engineering shop was to be reorganised with a view to unskilled -men and women being introduced in the largest possible numbers, the work to be done being, rearranged so that the skilled men employed should for as large a proportion of their time as possible be doing operations for which their special, skill was necessary. With regard to wages, it was arranged that, where the unskilled or semi-skill-ed workers did work identical to that "formerly' done by fully skilled engineers, they must receive the time-rateh and the piecerates of the men they displaced. ; These results wert 1- not achieved ! without a good deal of opposition ; and even at the present time the Minister of Munitions is. almost daily faced with the prospect of. the scheme going astray because of the belief of the trade, union

officials that by agreeing to this expedient they are making' a rod for their own backs when the war is over. A writer in /'The Economic Journal" comments, with regard to this belief, that "the Government's view is that success must be won in the war, and- that this is not the time to count the future cost. The Government has guaranteed the status quo ante to the unions, and now demands a clear field. But among employers and employees the words ' after the war ' are" constantly uttered. No one believes that the war can last for ever, and everyone is looking forward to an end of the truce in the labour world. The conviction that the greatest war in the history of the world will be followed by "an economic struggle on an equally large scale is extraordinarily widespread. It has become an obsession in the minds of many, both among employers and employed, and it. is by no means certain that the Government will succeed in making them forget the future and think only of the urgent needs of the country in 1 the present." " -