LABOUR BUREAUX.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 66, 28 December 1928, Page 7

LABOUR BUREAUX.

"ONLY FASCISTS NEED APPLY." Captains of industry who have their works in Turin and its vicinity are grumbling at a recent Government order which compels them to apply to the Fascist Labour Bureau for hands (.says a cable message to the* New York "World" from Turin, Italy). From those on the bureau's books "members of the Fascist party and Fascist unions are to have preference," said the order. One of the great objections large employers had against Socialist influence in factories under Democratic regimes was a very similar order, issued not by Government, but by Socialist labour chiefs. They are no better off now in thy respect. Tbey may be compelled to take an inferior man because he is a Fascist, refusing a job to a good workman who has not joined the party or its unions. Also, it keeps wages from dropping. This is a standing bone of contention between the Fascist union leaders, who refuse to reduce wages, already lower than anywhere else in Europe, and the employers, who argue that they cannot compete with their neighbour, France which has a low rate of exchange and is seizing markets formerly dominated by the Italians. Another result of the new rule will be to rope in those men who have so far stood aloof from Fascist unions. During the first three months of this year only 25 per cent of the Turin labouring masses had joined the Fascist unions. Now they are obliged to do so or remain unemployed indefinitely.