CARPENTERS DEMANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 153, 29 June 1911, Page 6

CARPENTERS DEMANDS.

-WAGES,-PREFEKENCE, AND EXEMPTION. EARNINGS AND UNEMPLOYMENT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. In the Arbitration Court to-day the hearing was commenced of a dispute between the Carpenters and Joiners' Union and employers.

Mr. Maddison, for the union, said the main points in which the claims differed from the old award were in regard to wages, preference, and exemption. The union was asking for a minimum wage of 1/8 per hour, and a week of 40 hours.

. His Honor: Is that put forward as a serious demand, Mr. Maddison?

Mr. Maddison: Yes, your Honor; we make that demand seriously.

'His Honor: You ask the Court to increase the rate by 4d per hour? Mr Maddison said the union considered their demands justified by the position of things at the present time. He spoke at length, on the subject of average earnings being greatly reduced by periods of unemployment.

His Honor: Ought we to take the question of unemployment into the matter of framing the minimum wage at all? Can't you see that if the minimum were raised for that reason there would bo a great rush to the ranks of the carpenters and joiners? This must increase the proportion of unemployment, and then you -will ask the Court to-raise the minimum of 2/ per hour, and so on.

'The Court," added his Honor, "was not able to provide an insurance fund for unemployment. That was for Parliament to do." Evidence for the union was then heard. The case will be continued to-morrow. The Wellington claim of the Carpenters and Joiners' Union for an increase of 4d per hour in wages and simultaneously a decrease of four hours in the ■working week was the subject of some inquiries by a ".Star" reporter this morning. It was discovered that no official information was available on the subject, 'but it was gleaned that the tenor of Auckland opinion is, in the main, not in sympathy with the demand for a fivedays' working week at increased pay. In actual fact it is doubtful if the Auckland unionist is inclined to take Mr Maddison any more seriously than did his Honor Judge Sim.