THE WORKER AND HIS HIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 135, 8 June 1911, Page 6

THE WORKER AND HIS HIRE.

. I TROITILE AMONG CITY COUNCIL EMP-OYE-S. NINE SHILLINGS PER DAY WANTED. There is apparently some trouble ! ahead amongst City Council employees, 'it being alleged that within a few days I practically all 'those engaged in the I work of drain-making will be on strike. Several of the men have already left their work, and their leader this morning informed a "Star" representative that .'l7 others have definitely decided to follow. The men, he asserted, were drainers, and represented the most important phase of the City Council sanitary work. All these men, it is further claimed, are skilled artisans, in that their labour requires much attention, and to be carried out to the engineer's satisfaction must be so performed that a candle held at the end of 200 yards of piping will not indicate a single kink in the pipe-laying. This being the case, they claim 9/ per day. instead of 8/. 'Recently they "\VTcrte--asking that the Council should grant this increase, and they now allege that the letter was never permitted to reach the Council. Within a few days, it was added, 40 men will be out unless the increase of a shilling per day is granted. The City Engineer (Mr. W". E. Bush), when interviewed, said the position had not been correctly stated. The CcAinoil only employs eight or nine drainers, and they are paid 9/ per day. The others are purely labouring men. pngaged to dig trenches, and having nothing to do with the laying and joining of pipes. One drainer, it was added, could keep 20 trench-makers going, and the latter work was simple pick and shovel work, requiring no skill, for which the regulation wage of 8/ per day was paid.