TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 20

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Th mittel e,Ullg ' JUly 14 ~ Fen mongers' Com*^rr n( 'j' r ' '"ly 16—Hairdressers, Furniture r JL rades. Tuesday. July 17—Clarion Choir Wednesday, July 18—Plasterers. Thursday, July 19—Boilermakers, Plumbers' Educational, Alliance of Labour. LOCAL ACTIVITIES. There is very little movement in the trade position at the local union offices. Some report that, if anything, employment is slacker than ever. In addition "to the surplus • labour available, the wet. weather is also a contributory factor, for many men, fortunate enough to be in work, are only making broken time, and this state of things will continue until the weather takes up. Local officials are busy making preparations for the opening of the winter sittings of the Arbitration Court in Auckland on Monday, July 23 ,at 10 a.m. Quite a number of compensation cases, adding parties, are on the list, and a few disputes will be heard.

Mr. J. Sutherland, secretary of the Auckland General Labourers' Union, who arrived back from Napier last week, reports good business done there. He conducted the dispute of the Hawkes Bav labourers before the Conciliation Commissioner, and got a agreement, and on the following Thursday, the presence of the Court of Arbitration in Napier gave an opportunity for the agreement to be made into an award. The labourer s "wage the Hawkes Bav district has been advanced from 1/10 to 2/1 nn hour, which brings the labourer's wage up to a level w'ith the other parts of the Dominion. The term of the award is for two years. According to Mr. Sutherland, labourers on the relief works of the lo&l bodies are being paid .union rates of pay, which is in distinct contrast to the 9/- and 12/- rates being paid 4° single and married men respectively in other parts of the Dominion. The Auckland union reports that approximately 60 men are employed on the new Auckland railway station site, but shortly this will be increased to about 200.

The Auckand Gas Company's Clerical Staff Union, after negotiations extending over quite two months, lias signed an agreement under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act for two years, substantially on the lines of the old agreement.

The Auckland Female Clothing Trades Union has been having some trouble over the employment in certain sections, of the industry, of non-union labour, and the union has decided to circularise its members, giving details of certain products which are the result of employing non-union labour. THE RIGHTS OF A WORKER. _An interesting case involving ' the right of an individual worker to work after a certain hour, was recently discussed before the Arbitration Court at Melbourne recently. The Melbourne branch of the Waterside Workers' Union had recently decided that on and after Monday, June 4, members of the union who have been working during the day would not come back for half-nights while other memberg were available. The secretary of the Commonwealth Steamship Owners' Association, Mr. H. Adams, complained that the decision of the waterside workers constituted direct action, and was a deliberate flouting of the Court. Judge Beeby said, however, that by an interim award, any attempt to enforce a system of distributing work collectively would be a breach of award. Individual men had the right to refuse to work after & p.m. BAN ON COMMUNISTS. Communists are still making their presence felt in the Old Country, as they do occasionally in the Dominion. From an Exchange I learn: Owing to complaints received from branches, the United Society of Boilermakers and Iron and Steel Shipbuilders have decided that no known Communist ghall be eligible as a delegate of the society to the Labour Party Conferenceor the Trades Union Congress. The Executive Council of the society calls upon all members arid officials to see that this decision, which it declares is in accordance with the wishes of the vast majority of its membership, is observed when the question of -nomination to the Labour Party Conference and the Trades Union Congress comes to be considered. •' A BIG STICK CLAUSE. When the Conciliation and Arbitration Act was placed on the Federal statute book many years ago (says an Australian Labour exchange) the fundamental principle of the legislation was the settlement of industrial disputes, and, where that was not "possible, at least to limit disputes In area, and prevent their extension to other industries. But, according to the Amending Arbitration Bill, now before the Federal Parliament, the extension of disputes is actually encouraged! Cause 7 of the Amending Arbitration Bill makes it possible that, where there is a dispute in any section of an industry, the employer may apply to the court for an order that a dispute has occurred. The court can then authorise the employer to declare a .ockout of the whole industry, even although there are sections of the industry not in any way concerned in the dispute. It may be that only a mere handful of workers in one small section of an industry are on strike, yet the employer will be able to go to the court and secure authority to declare a lockout involving thousands of workers. In short, a sectional dispute can be made to legalise a general lockout. While it will be argued that the clause also permits the workers, in the case of a sectional lockout, to apply to the court for an order dUclaring that a strike exists, the clause appears to have been specially designed to assist the employers to defeat the workers. This was indicted by Attorney-General Latham in the Federal Parliament on December 15 last. Referring t6 the engineers' strike in Sydney, he said:— The policy of a sectional strike was applied. . . If, in such a case, an employer were to lockout the members of the union engaged in other portions of his workshop* a-solution would in many cases readily be reached, but under the existing law that cannot be done. . . . Other employers were unable to support the firms or companies against which the strike was directed . . .. while, on the other hand, the union was supporting its members who t were on strike. Clause 7 is designed to deal with such a case. Boiled down, clause 7 of the Amending Arbitration Bill is clearly designed to arm employers with a weapon whereby they can bring about the stoppage of industry on a widespread scale, eyen though only a small number of the workers in any one section of the industry are involved in a dispute.