TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 24, 28 January 1921, Page 7

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) ■CN-ON MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. This Evening, Jan. 2S—Bricklayers. Monday. Jan. 31—Drivers' Committee. Tuesday. Feb. I—Engineers. I Wednesday. Feb. "2—Carpenters. I Thursday, Feb. 3—Liftmen, Electrician-. | WELLINGTON ENGINE DRIVERS' AWARD. Air. T. Cain, secretary of the Ancle- j land. Certificated Engine Drivers' Union, i left by Wednesday's express for Wei- , lington, to act as one of the assessors I for the union in their dispute, which opens at Wellington this morning, before the Wellington Conciliation Com- | mi-sioner, Mr. W. 11. Newton. The i dispute extends over the Wellington Indnstrial District, and the dates set down for each of the towns concerned Pare as follows:—Wellington. January 28; Palmerston North, January 31; I j Wanganui, February 1: Napier, Febru|ary 3. a GASWORI-EES' CONFERENCE. ■ On Tuesday, January '25, the first Do- | minion conference of gas workers lop-tred in Wellington, and will continue ■ ■its deliberations during this week. , i With the exception of the clerical staffs and th-e management, the interests of all gas employees, from meter waterers to I stokers and maintenance men will be j i considered by this conference. The Auckland union is represented by two i I delegates ami the other centres represented are:—Napier, Wanganui, Wei-. 1 lington. Christchurch. and Dunedin.' The result of the conference will be the i formation of a New Zealand Gas ! Workers' Federation. ' THE INDUSTRIAL BAROMETER. This week the news come- to us from j ' aero-_ the Taxman Sea that the I i stewards' strike has been declared off by i the union, and t-he men are quite ready ; to go back to .work as soon as the shipowners will let them. The shipowners, on their part, declare that they require (some sort of a guarantee from tbe l union that tbe men will carry on their ] j work efficiently and well, or they would . rather not run the ships at all. And [so this strike, like so many of its predecessors, has finished up with nothing: gained, but very much lost to the j workers concerned. In New Zealand, j railwaymen have been promised some concessions in the way of extra time for , I using dirty coal, and things are much easier in consequence. The eyes of the ■ suffering general public are now directed I towards the mining industry, and anxious speculation is rife as to what I will be the prospects of industries continuing with the miners going slow : from north to south, or. as an altenrai tive, the shutting: down of the mines | ! altogether. On the lines of the weather reports, so familiar to us from day to day, it might be stated:—"The disturbance 'Bofehie,' which was operating on the Australian ooastline earlier in the month, has now advanced across the Tasman Sea, and is threatening districts lying between the parallels of 168 and 179 deg., east longitude. Barometric pressure within this area is very low, and industrial managers are taking every precaution to guard against disaster. In the meantime daily readings of the industrial barometer on the Commonwealth coastline indicate a return to more genial weather."

Writing on this question "Veteran,"' in his labour column in the Dun,edi*» "Star" of last Saturday says: —It seems a pity that we should be threatened with a shortage of coal on such a simple matte!- as a difference of opinion between one coal company and two of their employees. Whatever the merits of this small dispute may be, there does not 6eem any reason for the whole of the miners in New Zealand adopting the go-slow policy, which is bad for themselves, and reacts on the whole community by causing a shortage *nd -consequently higher prices for coal. The Blackball miners and their employers have for some years been causing trouble at intervals which has led to loss of wages to the men and possibly loss of income to the company; and the fault has not always been with the men. They have on some occasions been harshly treated by the management; but that is no reason why the whole community should be inconvenienced by thr<=e continuous n-o-slow spasm- by the whole of the miners throughout the Dominion. After givirm the "-i_tory of previous troubles at the Blackball mine, in one of which a, prosecution by the Labour Department before the Arbitration Court, under Mr. Justice Sim in 1908, resulted in the union being fined the sum of £75, "Veteran" concludes: After listening to the judge's condemnation of the manager's methods, the members of the union (who were nearly all in court) were astoun__d at the amount of the fine, which was the heaviest single penalty that had been inflicted up to that time, and I do not think it has been ; exceeded since, and the result has been that there has been friction between that company and their men ever since, -_nd more than one strike over the summary dismissal of _*texi, the last dne being the dismissal of two men for alleged insubordination. It appears that the two men have been reinstated, and the strike is over; but it has (-fused "goslow" methods to be resorted to in other mines, and up to the time of writinf- the "go-_low" policy is still in force in some of them, although the Blackball men are again at work. I have gone somewhat into detail on this question on purpose to show that there are faults on both sides, and that it is hot always the miners that are to blame. But at the same time I think that they often \ act rashly, without giving due consideration to the matters which cause endless and uncalled-for stoppages of work. It is evident that if both sides would be a I little more tolerant, and had' a little more give and take in their methods, we would have fewer of these disputes in the coal-mining industry, which not only disorganise otheT industries, but also arg detrimental to other workers who depend so much on coal for being atble to carry- on their own work.