TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 115, 16 May 1924, Page 9

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TKAJIP.) rSION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Monday. May 19—Furniture Trades. Hairdressers. Cutlers ;iud I'ressers, Freezing »orks Employees Tuesday, Ma y 20—Flnmners. ■Wednesday. May i'l —Auckland Carpenters. Tlns.erers. Onehunpa rarpeuters. Thursday. May 22—Pltmihcrs' Krlmvitlnnal. ■Fridaj - , May j;.;—Beamsuien. APPRENTICES ACT. As foreshadowed in last week's notes, the recommendations of the Apprenticeship Committee in the Auckland Painting Trade were submitted to the Arbitration - Court at the e.nrl of last week, and will be lipid until the committees in . the southern centres have also filed their recommendations, when a pronouncement of working conditions for that trade for the Dominion will be made by the Court. In the meantime, it is expected that the working conditions for the trainees will be observed as in the last award. With ; the plumbers' recommendations not being signed by the employers in time, for the hearing set down by the Court, the matter has been deferred until the arrival of the Court in Auckland three months hence. The painters' recommendations, therefore, have the distinction of being the first set hied in any trade in the Dominion under the new Act. RESUSCITATION. A movement is c.n foot amongst the ; Auckland unions to resuscitate the Auckland Trades and Labour Council to conserve the rights of workers on industrial lines. Time was when the Trades and Labour Councils, of which there were branches in each important centre of the Dominion, were regarded as of no mean importance in the land. In each centre the council was composed of delegates from each of the unions, and each Easter a conference of delegates from euh council was held nt each city in turn, at which remits dealing with 'amendments to the industrial laws of the Dominion were discussed and dealt with. The decisions of each conference were regarded as the desires and aspirations of the workers as a whole, and the Government of the day, which was for many years led by Ballance, Seddon. and Ward, regarded these decisions with interest and a certain amount of respect. So much was this so, that delegates to the annual conferences travelled to and from the conventions on free passes issued on train and boat. It is not boasting to assert that a great deal of the industrial legislation under which we work to-day first had its inception in the Trades and , Labour Councils' meetings. True, the conferences did not get all they asked for—it was not expected; but eich year the Liberal Government adopted a certain proportion of the reforms asked for, and embodied them in bills that were passed by the Parliament. But with the advent, of the Reform party the influence of the councils began to wane, and the unions (some of them) established the United Federation of Labour to take up the running, but the U.F.L. never fllle.d the place of the old councils. Now the U.F.L. is no more, and unions are reverting to the old ideal. In the south trades councils are in operation, and only Auckland amongst the large centres i"» wanting. On May rt advantage was taken of the presence of Mr. J. Read, president of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council, in Auckland, and he delivered an address at the Trades Hall to union officials on the need of a council in the northern metropolis, with the result that a resolution was passed in favour of the proposal, and the Trades Hall Trust was asked to issue circulars to the local unions asking them to send their executives to a conference at the Trades Hall on .Tune 2~i next, to discuss the establishment of a local: Trades Council on industrial lines. Theee invitations are now being sent in accordance with the instructions given at the meeting. Only industrial unions are eligible to be represented at the meeting, as political organisations can join other societies. MINERS AND CONTRACTS. By a Bix-to-one vote the convention of the United Mine Workers of America declared that when miners sign an agree- j ment this pledge must be kept. The decision was made in the case of the Nova Scotia district which, supported the Communist internationale and indulged in an illegal strike. President Lewis showed that this district, in defiance of its contract and union practices, [ ordered out pump men, imperilling property to the extent of millions of dollars. President Lewis suspended the district last summer. "Either you want to uphold the law and abide by your contracts or you don't," said the miners' executive, who declared that a vote against the report of the committee is a vote against ; the sanctity of contracts. i "By such a vote you will say to the world that you are. more concerned with your private passions and prejudices than in upholding the contractural obligations of your union,"'continued President Lewis. " The suspension of the district was upheld by a vote of 1800 to 300. LABOUR AND LIFE INSURANCE. ! Life insurance controlled liy organised Labour is a near probability according to George W. Perkins, president of the Cigar Makers' International Union (says the "American Federation of Labour News Service"'). At the last A. F. of L. convention President Gompers was authorised to appoint a committee to make a survey of the various life insurance systems. ! "Billions of dollars are invested ia the insurance business," says President PerI kins. "There is no reason why the ! unions affiliated to the A. F. of L. should not joiutly control the insurance for their members. Such a company could be conducted on co-operative non-profit-bearing lines. The overhead cost would be greatly reduced, and if only' one-half of the workers now organised joined in such a movement it would make the largest and most powerful insurance . company in the whole world, and would be the cheapest and the safest. "Such a concern, when formed, would necessarily, under the insurance laws, have to'maintain a specified resereve fund. This fund could be used for home building purposes for our members and for any'other legitimate proper pur- ! pose that would add to the comfort and I well-being of the wage-earning masses."