SEARCHING FOR WORK

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 200, 23 August 1919, Page 7

SEARCHING FOR WORK

COO UNEMPLOYED LABOURERS. ONE RESULT OF RAILWAY UESUEICTIOXS. lii their discussion this week al)out the amount of unemployment in Auckland, members of the tiuneral Labourer.*' L'niou did not exaggerate the position when they estimated the number of workless manual toilers at something over 600, and considered the situation to be due almost entirely to the railway restrictions. Tile organising secretary of the union, Mr. Andy O'Neill, said that a few months ago the demand for labourers exceeded tlic supply, but during the first half of last montii there were over a thousund unemployed, and the 000 idle labourers who were vainly searching for work in and about Auckland to-day were made up of 200 regular members of the union, and hundreds of freezing workers, sawmill hands, wliarflcs ;ind railwayman.

The men from the freezing works were just naturally left without a job when those works closed down after the season, Mr. O'Xeil explained, but under normal circumstances they could quite easily have been absorbed into other iiihskillej occupations about the province. 'Hie sawniillers had themselves been compelled to discharge many men owinji to the <'fTe.c.ts of tile railways restrictions on their operations, and these bad to drift into town in search of another job. As for thi? wharfics. work on the waterfront had been very slack for a long time, and many of the watereiders had jrone. further afield in search of other work. Xoiv the position on the harbour side was a little better, but still work was not plentiful enough to brina all the watersider.s back to their oh! haunts.

These thin<r< were all due to the abnnnnal times, but there were other classes of workers who had contributed their quotas towards fulinjr the ranks of the unemployed. Casual hands on the railways were now in msiiy instances thrown out of work, and the restricted train arrangements had cut the ground from tinder the feet of a <;reat many employers who were dependent upon transport facilities for their materials. (If these were builders and contractors, who in many instances had to sack their men because no materials wire available to carry on their work. The next workmen to fall on these evil times, aec'Ordhig to Mr. O'NcilVn opinion, wouU be ironworkers and foundry hands, but of course that is tncrelr an opinion.

At the moment there is no avenue through which it wmil.l appear to 'lie possible to hrin<; relief to t!ii; {Treat -crowd of unskilled unemployed. The restrictions on the railways are .severe, and they cannot ride by rail to jobs in the country, even supposing the work was there to ro to. All kind-; of operations tiiat require labourers are hold up because materials are not coming forward, and it is apparent that Unless conditions take a step back towards normal pretty soon, there will be st'll more m.'v on the look-out for work. It would appear that th,e call for work is sound ine everywhere, an;l onh' with very few employers, indeed, such, for instance, as the l)i»- rlothing manufacturers and people wanting domestics, is there any ureat shortage. Almost every other industry, more especially those who can use unskilled labour, has no need to chase it. for there are far more men competing for tlie work tlian there arc VBfnnt positions to fill.

The •iH'srinniiur-; of tin" mil attempt sn far Ir> Ip*soii tln< unrMiplnyment nciMi nißilo liv flip ov;>'>iii-i'tion ninst (liroctlv the ''ipncrnl Labonr.'r< - t'nioti. \r\ilrh h:is rlp.-idrd to ask Onvpntwnf to f-tiirt «nmp relief work soinff in Auckland. What tiip Roverniroiit can ronimpnee *n a~ t.i f;ivp pmployment to all tlio>e peo;>li> is nut clear.