TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1913, Page 8

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

JBjr "INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.").' UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. This Evening, . April 17—Boilermakers, Stonemasons, Newmarket Carpenters. Friday; April IS—Bricklayers, Brewery -Employees.Monday.- -April 21.—Plasterers, Cutters, and Tuesday, April 22..—Central Carpenters, Engineers, Tramways. Wednesday, April 23.—Bootmakers, Chemical Workers (Otahuhu). Thursday,. April 24.'—Engine Drivers, Coopers. The Arbitration Court sessions will probably finish on Tuesday next. I have been asked to make an appeal to the workers of Auckland on behalf of the collection that ie to be taken up on Ambulance Saturday, April 19th, in in our.public street... The objects of this appeal especially affect the workers who receive first aid from the many students that the St. John Ambulance Association annually turn out. An ambulance station has been built on a site provided , by the City Council in Rutland Street, in which a motor garage nnd lectureroom are provided; also living accommodation for one or more trained men, who will alwaye-.be available for attending to cases of accident or sudden illness, and for the conveyance of patients to the hospitals or their homes. The original estimates for the erection of the building were cut down considerably so as to come within the mcane of the association; and yet it has co«.t £3,500. To £2.000. in hand was added a bequest of £1,000., so that a further sum of £500 is required to complete the payments for the building. It is also proposed to raise an additional amount of £1,000, with which to procure a motor ambulance wagon, as the distances are now often .too great for the efficient working of invalid transport- services by means of boree-drawn. vehicles' which are now! practically obsolete. Tbe association has no endowment*, nor any source of income except voluntary subscriptions and the class fees paid by men and women so that -they may acquire the knowledge necessary to enable them to relieve suffering. . Of these fees, a large proportion hue to be paid to the doctors who lecture to and examine the classes. The association has no paid officials, with the exception of the secretary, who receives £40 per annum for doing three times that amount of work, so that whatever the people give to the association they get back again in services rendered. The Auckland Rattan and Wickerworkers' Union on Monday evening la.st donated £1 1/ in aid of the funds of -the association. In a judgment delivered on Tuesday last, the Arbitration Court has declared the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act Amendment Act of 1011 to be a defective Act, and all Conciliation Council settlements made into awards by what has been termed the "automatic" clause 7 of that Act are rendered unenforceable. This is a serious blow to the principle of mutual conciliation, and the Government will have to remedy tho error caused by careless drafting during the next session. The judgment of the Court is very clear, even to a layman; the section provides that if within one month after the settlement is arrived ait. no noticeof ithis agreement has beenJiled, the clerk of awards shall give notice to the parties of the fact, and the recommendation shall, as from seven days after the date of the notice, operate, and be enforceable in the same manner as an award duly executed and filed by the parties. A 6 the judgment puts it, "there arc no awards executed and filed by the parties, therefore the recommendation is to have the effect of something which does not exist." Tho Auckland and Suburban Local Bodies Labourers' award has been declared >to be no award at all, and not worth the paper it is printed on. The employers can pay what wages they like, and the most stringent preference clause evcT agreed to by the employers is simply unenforceable. The first award made under this Act of 1911 was the Canterbury Stonemasons' in April, 1912, arid since then nine others have been made.in various parts of the Dominion. The Auckland Bookbindens' award, made in ; December laet, would also have been added to this list, but for the action of the union in withdrawing the dispute from before-the Court last week. It is intended to ask the Minister for Labour to ■ receive a. deputation on his next visit to Auckland, to lay before him -the absolute necessity of potting through as speedily as -possible a validating bill when Parliament opens that will make these and future settlements valid and enforceable. The. Auckland Saddlers' settlement, which was arrived at before the Concilia- , tion Council last month, would also have been added to the list, but for the fact that after the delivery of the judgment on Tuesday, Mr A. ißoeser, on behalf of the iinionJ lodged a formal protest to the settlement, and the dispute will come before the Court of Arbitration next Tuesday:,-. This will save the situation so far as'the saddler*, are concerned. .-The talk of the past -week ha 6 been the organising of *the Auckland Police Force into an association for mutual protection., Two meetings have been held as yet, and the men are evidently determined .to band themselves together for their own defence. It is claimed that , of late the regulations have been administered in such a fashion that the men have kicked. Even in the palmy days of Gilbert and Sjullivan "the police- . jina'n's lot -is not a happy one," but it is said that the members of the force that had to contend with the "Pirates of Penzance" were on a bed of roses ■compared- with their .modern confreres of the Dominion. Men are drilled in baitchcs of 14 or 16 in a narrow station yard-on their days off. Wet towels and shaving brushes must not be left out to dry,- but must be' put into »_ho clothes chest, thereby having a distinctly insani- , ,tary-effect On the other clothes'.' These . may be "pin-pricks," but scores of other instances of such trivialities are cited , by the men, who.also, complain of irritat- , ing charges being brought against them, . to. say nothing of promotions withheld. The members of ' the force in ,other centres' , are also moving Jin ; tbe.,'. direction ■-. of .unity, .' and'-. the ; Secretary of the Auckland association has written to' Australia for information concerning the. formation of 'a" N.S.W.. Police Union as a guide to : ,the local movement. The members of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council have moved in the direction of closer organisation in the.Country dis- ' triets. The intention is to appoint an organiser who will apply himself to strengthening existing unions, and where no union or branch is established, he ■' •will lorm mixed'•'locate,'' -which -win embrace all classes.of workers, irrespective * of their calling, on the lines of industrial uniomsw. This, at is anticipated/will ] result Jn a big accession of strength to ! i - ' ; . '1

unionism in Victoria. lhe labour-move-ment .there has- made great strides of recent years, and the accommodation at fhe Trades Hall is utterly inadequate to meet the demands made upon it. Many of -the union secretaries have been compelled to take offices in -the city; and it is with difficulty that- unions holding meetings can be provided with sufficient space. It is intended to considerably enlarge the Trades Hall at the earliest opportunity. At the Court of Industrial Appeals in Melbourne the determination of • the Clerks' Wages Board, giving women clerks the.same wages as men, was set aside, and the women were awarded rates of pay generally on the basis of two-thirds the amount given to men. The wages of 48/ for 48 hours' work, awarded to male clerks, has been maintained. A Labour exchange says in this connection:—"That isn't fair to women. Equal pay for equal work is a proper -and just demand for the future mothers of young Australia." A member of a recent Melbourne unemployed deputation to the Minister for . External Affairs said he arrived from England only seven months ago, and at the present time he was. living -absolutely on charity. He waa in business on his own account in England, and he had paid his own passage to the Commonwealth, having, been induced to come -here by officers of the Immigration Department, who had led him and others to believe thai, work- of all descriptions could be obtained in any part of Australia. A ballot was recently taken by the Miners' Federation of Great Britain on the question of a 40-hour week, but the results, of the voting in the different districts were so varied that the executive decided that no action could be takcu at present for the adoption of a general five-day-week policy. Meeting at the Westminster Palace Hotel, under the chairmanship of the president of tho federation (Mr. Kobcrt Smillie), the committee received reports from the | various district* on the ballot which bad j been taken on the question. The ballot! had resulted hi the recording of a j majority of. over (50,000 in favour of fhe ' five-day week, the figures beina: For. i 1231.741: against, 171.270. The majority in favour was expected, but. the surnris- I mg result is the wide variation in" the i voting fifnires between different districts, i The detailed figures are:— | For. Against.! Yorkshire 32.141 43,0521 Lancashire and ! Cheshire. 31,171 17 432: Midland Federation.. 0.053 1-I'-'74 ■ Scotland 14 g 27 1 Northumberland 20 400 7 C 'Sl ' Durhanl 45,0.11 :.fUO4 Somerset .i 9 ;{ 0 0 .., 0 Derbyshire 14.044 11,214 South Derbyshire..'.. ] ; 302 1,162 Leicestershire. 2,017 909 Nottinghamshire • 14.202 50,004 Cumberland . .• 1J833 4 £G6 North Wales 3.825 5 ''89 Cleveland 602 0^97 I'orcst of Dean i,OS7 '241 These figures, however, did not represent th «- polling of all the mines in the federation, because none had been sent in from South Wales, where there arc 116,000 members of the federation, or from Bristol, where there arc 1,700 members. The following resolution was therefore carried:—"That, in the opinion of this executive committee, no action can be taken on the adoption of a general fivc-days-per-weck policy on the figures shown in the ballot-box." After some discussion the committee also resolved: "That the whole matter be referred to a special conference to be called at an early date by the president and secretary."