TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 9, 10 January 1918, Page 6

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

[(By "INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.")

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE- WEEK. This Evening, January 10—Storemen.

Friday, January 11— Sailmakers, Moulders Bricklayers. Saturday, January 12—Waterside Workers (Committee), Freezing. Workers. Monday, January 14—Painters, Gumworkers. Tuesday, January 15—Engineers (\"o ">> Carpenters. " ' .Wednesday, Jan. 16—Waterside Workers. THE PAST YEAR. At the opening or a new Year it is icneficial and profitable to look'back over the experiences of the past year. While the year has been full of "turmoil and •unrest in other parts of the world, Xciv Zealand has been especially fortunate in having escapeS the -worst of the prevailing unrest, trouble, and privations. The ■workers in the Mother Country, being vlose to the theatre of war, have-had to put up with many privations in the way •of obtaining the necessaries of life. From <time ±o time -we have heard of the high, -wages earned at Home, but this is only in connection with the turning out of munitions; there are numberless homes -whose breadwinners »re not engaged in munition making, and •therefore are not able to boast of any increase of -wages commensurate -with tho increaeing cost of living, and -when one considers the women and children .-waiting their turn in the queues that Bssembla outside the various stores, in order to obtain the miserable portions of groceries and foodstuffs that are allotted •to them, -we must congratulate ourselves Sn having our lines easfin more pleasant places. In New Zealand we are thankful "that there .-wera no great industrial upihoavals during 1917. Though not actually •widespread, the meet serious trouble was the unrest on the waterfront, principally at 'Wellington in February, following a conference at which the employers \flatly declined to-make any concessions except .through, the Arbitration Court. They took steps to bring the unions before the Court, and while these steps "were in pro.gress the -workers at various porta placed in operation various items of their demands, such as restricting the hours of labour, and the methods of handling cargo. This, in effect, led to the slowing down of operations, and in Wanganui the employers retaliated in the introduction of free labour. Boats loaded iby free labour were blocked at other ports. After mutual threats and recriminations had been indulged in, a second conference was arranged, and this resulted in an agreement, the principal points of which proAided for an increase of wages of 2d per iour, termed a bonus, and the limitation of hours for the engagement of labour. The trouble -was not ended, for the infection spread to the. miners, and at the iiearing of miners' appeals before the Military Service Boards ■ undeniable evidence /was" adduced showing the introduction of what was termed a "go-slow policy," in which, the- miners were busily engaged in reducing the output of the mines. This also led to a. conference, held in in which increases of 7* per cent', to the hewing'rafje and 10 per cent, to the wages nien ended the trouble, which had assumed serious dimensions, and the normal output was resumed. For seven weeks during September and •October there was trouble at Wellington, and the result was the coastal shipping strike. Seamen refused, to go to eea in the "Inosquito" fleet except with two men other than officers in the watch. After much parleying and the imprisonment of two of the officers of the union, the seamen resumed work on condition that a -further conference be held. That conference has not yet eventuated. This ■week the officials, having served their, terms of imprisonment, are once more at liberty, and according to information by Press Association wires are not .to be allowed to have access to the Wellington -wharves. Whether the Seamen's Union •will submit to this embargo being laid "upon their officers remains to be seen. The only other trouble to record was the Wellington Gas Workers' strike in July and August, which, though purely local, probably aroused more interest in the capital city than any other trouble, ' as the citizens had to undergo severe and drastic restrictions placed upon the .use of gas. Free labour was introduced, and finally the strikers were reinstated, the watersiders had absolutely refused to Ihandle the coal intended for gas making, •and the workers agreed to take their '<-ase to the Arbitration Court. So far, in this ease also, no finality has been arrived at. ,

LABOUR UNREST, "in discussing labour unrest to-day," says Mr. B. Seebohm Rowntree, in the "" Contemporary Review," - we Jhust distinguish between its transitory and its ]>ermanetit characteristics. The conditions especially affecting it at the present have been carefully explored by ; the Commissions of. Inquiry which have recently reported, and we are familiar with, their findings. One of the main general grievances 13 the fact that wages lave not, in most cases, risen in proportion, with the cost of living, although extraordinarily high profits are being made by some employers who, even after the Excess Profits Tax has been paid, can declare dividends out of all proportion to the pre-war rate. Workers feel that they alone suffer materially by the high prices of foodstuffs and other necessaries, and by the various war measures which, have been taken by the Government. They are stale and irritable (a conditon not confined to them) after three years of unremitting toil; they are bearing their full share of anxiety about their relatives at the front; yet they feel that ceaseless vigilance on their part is necessary if they are to safeguard Labour's interests, in the future.

" Labour has been called upon, to surrender the bulk of its privileges, and has loyally done so, in response to the exigencies of the -war. But it is bound to ask itself whether the privileges will be permanently lost or c-urtailed, or restored in full measure -when the war is over.

"Yet, even if every industrial griev- . ance -incidental to a state of war were removed to-morrow, we should only revert -to the conditions in 1914, which were profoundly .unsatisfactory. Not until -we remove the deep underlying <-ause of industrial unrest can we hope for industrial peace. AVhat are those <-ause? I think they may be classified under three heads:' Wages, Status and ■Working Conditions." A FIVER A WEEK FOR ALL. Ur. .lorn Jlann, in a letter to ilr. W. A. Appleton, in support of Lord Lcverhulme s proposal for a six-hour day. sug- - jrests that immediately O n the close of the war the workers should establish a working Tveek of 30 hours—six hours a day for five days a week, and two