TRADE & LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 133, 5 June 1907, Page 8

TRADE & LABOUR NOTES.

(Bjr Industrial Tramp.}, {Secretaries of the various TJnlons are requested to forward copies ol tnelr Union engagements to "Industrial Tramp," "Star_ Office, and a list of Union Meetings will be furnished at toe head of this column for each week.)

TJMOK MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK.

Friday. June 7 — Labourers' (Pound Sight). Monday, June 10 — Grocers' (Social Com-

inittee). Cabmen Tuesday. June 11 — Carpenters .Wednesday, June 12 — Trades and Labour Council.

The condition of trade and labour in the Auckland district is very satisfactory. The building trade in all its branches is busy. No men are idle who ■wish to work. Several large buildings are in course of erection in the city, while in the suburbs the construction of dwellings is going on in all directions. Men are hard to geu for country jobs, as while work is plentiful in the big centres men are not anxious to work in the country in the winter time, when no overtime can be made, and lost time through wet weather is the rule rather than the exception.

Clothing-trade factories are -working full handed, and are very busy. The local advertising columns are full of inquiries for young people of either sex to learn the trade.

The tailoring trade is fairly busy, and the recent cold, wet weather has brought along the winter orders.

The engineering trade is fair, while all the hands in the saddle and harness trade axe fully employed.

All the local unions have received circulars advocating the rival claims of Messrs. J. A. McCullough and R. Slater to the position of Workers' representative on the Court of Arbitration. At the monthly meeting of the Auckland Grocers' Assistants, held on Monday evening last, it was unanimously decided to nominate Mr. R. Slater again for the position.

The unions in Auckland are beginning to realise the truth of the old adage, " All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The builders' labourers occasionally have what is called a, " pound night," at which every member is expected to contribute something digestible, and at which songs and recitations are also contributed to form a sociable evening. The grocers' assistants on Monday evening decided to meet quarterly until further notice, and during the winter session to hold monthly socials for the benefit of the members." A sub-committee was appointed to draw up a programme for the season, and they hold their first meeting <on Monday evening next.

is a complex animal, so we are told, and the social side of his nature certainly needs satisfaction occasionally. There are very many members of unions •who pay in their contributions regularly to the collectors, but who consider the meetings axe too dry for them to take an interest in; therefore they never attend them, and it is to enlist the attention of these members that these socials are being instituted. The.unions must, however, be careful that they do not sacrifice good solid work in favour of too much gaiety and frivolity.

Quite a sensation has been caused among the members of the Employers' ■Federation during the past montn by several decisions of the Court of Arbitration with regard to the weekly wage system. In the Otago Felt Hatters' award, recently given by the Court, the ■wages clause reads: —"The workers shall <be weekly servants, and shall be paid wages at the rate of not less than £3 per week for t week's work of forty-eight hours." In this industry, and under this award, there is no such thing as casual labour, and any worker who works less than the 48 hours is entitled to be paid the full week's pay. Again, in the April number of the '■"Labour Journal" is given the judgment of the Court in an application for an enforcement of agreement by the Wellington Tramways Employees" Union, against the Wellington City Council. The agreement provides for an hourly wage, similar to the last Auckland Tramways' award, and also specifies that "the hours for motormen and conductors shall be up to nine hours per day in six days of the week-" Also, "'Not less than one week's notice of termination of employment shall be given by the Corporation or the employee, but this shall not prevent the Corporation from dismissing any employee for good cause." The Court in its written judgment says: ■—"We- think that the effect of these clauses is to make the engagement' of firemen and greasers (the men concerned in the application), a. weeidy hiring 'at the weekly wage of £2 16/, being 48 hours per week, at 1/2 per hour." And, after quoting several authorities in' support of this contention, the judgment goes on to state: '"'For this weekly "wage, the firemen and greasers nave to work, if required, eight hours per day on the six working days of the week. If they are required to work, and do work, beyond these hours or on Sundays, they are entitled to be paid, - in- addition to their ■weekly wage, at the rate fixed by clauses 2 and 4 respectively. . . The position under the agreement is, therefore, that the Corporation must pay the firemen and greasers their weekly wage whetfier they are required to work or not on every working day of the week. We ihold that the Corporation, in not paying these men for the days on which they .were ordered, to stand off work, has committed a breach of the agreement,, but we think, that the case may be treated as % question of interpretation,- and we do not impose any fine. It will, of course, be the duty of the Corporation to pay to the men all back pay that has been improperly deducted." Several of the 'Auckland unions are moving in the direction of getting this principle recognised in their respective callings.

Some men keep their billets a long time- A cook at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, the famous London restaurant, completed 40 years of service there last Easter. It is very significant that he has outlasted many of the clients for whom he had catered!

Trusts and corners are not entirely confined to America and Europe. In this prosperous little colony of ours, we have '"been hearing of wheat corners and the like during the past -week-- Some lucky ifanner —so the Press telegrams tell as— ihas been holding on to his wheat, and •buying more, until his ■wheat amounts to aver 12,000 sacks, and if. he sells now .he will make a profit of over 40 per cent. ' •Tα the meantime the staff of the .workers' bread, has gone np a halfpenny, and in. some places a penny per loaf. The Hon. J- A. Millar has stated the intenjtxjn of the Government to step in to prevent this trading on the class least able &> ac increase,'viz., $jj. e grorksEs »& aei *&&*-& is Same,