TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 17

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. M wfe "class 28 -- Painters - Bricklayers. Tuesday, April 29.—Engineering Trades. Wednesday April 30.—Auckland Carpenters. Onehunga Carpenters. Thusdajv May I—Plumbers' Educational.

MUSIC IN INDUSTRY. The other day, while paying a visit to one of our local shirt factories, on opening the door, I was agreeably surprised hy the sound of music, low but sweet. It was the girls singing one of the old songs, to the accompaniment of the whirring sewing machines. The employer told me that-he never discouraged the singing by the girls so long as the work did not slacken, as he found that a girl who sang over her work was a contented worker, and the output did not suffer. This is in contradistinction to my own experience as a carpenter, some years ago in Sydney. My employer was a Scotchman, and coming on the job one day, he caught one of the boys Whistling at his work. He pulled him up with the question, "Do I pay ye for whustlin?" and the boy—a Sydney-born lad—replied, "No, but I chuck that in to the ibargain.' Professor E. Saclisenberg, of Berlin, has heen investigating the possibility of increasing workers' output by means of rhythmical sounds or by elimination of disturbing noises. In one packing warehouse (according to -the "Christian Science Monitor") the workers' movements were carefully analysed. The humming noises by various instruments were introduced so that the duration of each noise corresponded to a movement. Almost at once the output rose sharply, in some cases 'by more than 20 per cent. When the noises were changed so as not to : be in time with the movements, output decreased. Experiments in a spinning mill resulted in a 15 per cent increase of output. The most interesting case was in a factory manufacturing heat regulators. It has been found that in one lot of 80 regulators there were as many as 60 faulty ones. It was found that a coppersmith working in the same shop made a terrible noise. He was removed, and the ouput of regulators in a given •time went up from 80 to 110, while the faulty pieces dropped to 7 out of 110,' instead of 60 out.of 80. FRENCH MAIDS' DEMAND. Parisian "femmes de menage" — or, in English, chambermaids —are in revolt (says an Exchange.) Repairing on January 1 'by the hundreds from apartments great and small to the left hank of the -Seine, they drew up a bill of rights for presentation to the 'household in which they serve. It reads: "We, the Union of the Femme de Menage of Paris., have the honour to announce to you our ultimate and unalterable decisions, taken in general assembly. From now on wc must have a fixed wage, not depending on the whim and humour of our employers. Thp tip, being a varying amount depending on change, should ibe fixed. From January l.we refuse to polish a's well as to climb up ladders for the purpose of shining window panes and keeping them in condition. We ask for double pay Sundays and holidays, and not to have pay arbitrarily deducted for, ...uniforms. After big dinneis and receptions we ask-for a supplementary sum for polishing the.glasses and shining the silver." The Tegular wage of these maids of all work in Paris is £3 to £4 a month. In the provincial towns it. is £2 10/ a month, and dn the country less.

THE COST OF RIJST. Tic effects of rust on steel are said io cost the world; no; less than: £5,000,000 a To prevent corrosion fay , rust .it. is; necessary topairitall-exposed,steelwork-and to keep it painted. In the case of a structure like, the Forth. Bridge, the. task ifi a never-ending one. It takes three .years to paint'it once and 50 tons of pain are .required for one coating 01 this mile and a, half, of steel. Thirty men are kept in continuous employment. . ' ..Unfortunately, tit is enough to, -paiht" steelwork" periodically, it must be. 'inspected at frequent: intervals, and a further coating of paint" applied wlien-everjhecessary;--If-this fact wefre, broug t under-the.-notice of* our ; own City' ijounci! it couid save a considerable sum .in replacements and repairs. One has only to look at the state of iron railings round the cricket ground, and also Albert Park, various bandstands, _ ana other iron structures under the jurisdiction of the city fathers. Not to paint is a most short-sighted policy and. a waste of public money. In addition, painting would furnish employment ior more artisans on reproductive work. DISEASE IN DAILY WORK. We are (says Headway) all suddenly talking about psittacosis. People began dyinc of it in Vienna, and,,now tney have° been dying of ?it,in ; Birmingham, which brings this unfamiliar malady a great deal nearer home.. But if the malady is unfamiliar to the common man, the International Laboui Office knows all about.it.. The office has indeed, done its best ;to _ let the world know whait psittacosis :'is, for it has published—or,. rather, is publishing m parts—a' fascinating encyclopaedia on "Occupation and Health," a study of .'Which leads us swiftly into unsuspected byways.;. As for psittacosis, it is a disease which, "like its name, comes from the common' parrot, and, as might be supposed,, it occurs - most frequently among breeders of the parrot, though it. also affedts persons engaged in transporting that ribald bird. It was; fixsi recognised in France m 1892, .at the time when an epidemic killed 500 "ptfrrakeets out of 1000 imported from Brazil. The symptoms are violet sickness and faintness, which frequently lead to death. Seemingly, it is unwise to feed a parrot from the same ppoon as the one you are yourself in the habit of -using. A Viennese fortune teller who was on such friendly terms with his parrot, at the time infected by the disease, met his death thereby. Since then there have been reports of deaths in Germany, Czecho - Slovakia and the United States. . . . The warnings given by the-1.L.0. to. "gamekeepers, hunters, _ trappers and breeders," do not stop with pariots. A valuable industry is mentioned, 'that of pigeon fatteners. "These workers," the encyclopedia says, "are obliged to fatten up in a very short time pigeons which have been sent by rail to the large food markets, and they carry out their task either at certain railway junctions or in the markets. themselves, on arrival of the large game hampers. They blow into the open beaks of. the birds seeds of vetch, and of millet soaked in water, •which they hold in their mouths. An expert worker can in one day fatten several thousands of birds." .From, this trade (which, by the way, is almost a lost art in England since • the advent of the food pump) there comes a disease called "aspergillus fumi- |

gatus." It is a lung disease, causing violent coughing and all other symptoms connected with that painful affliction. The troubles of alligator and snake breeders are less subtle and a trifle more sinister. It is, of course, no frivolous occupation. In the latter case A _ enomous reptiles are bred purely in order to obtain the anti-vennine sera coming from snake-bitten horses. In the former case it is for their skins and not for circus and movie purposes that they are kept. That distinguished body of 100 experts who, in conjunction with the Correspondence Committee on Industrial Hygiene, are compiling the encyclopedia, are responsible for bringing to our notice the most unsuspected perils, in many other fields. At random I fell Upon a section devoted to "Hairdressers." They are, it seems, "exposed to conditions inimical to health not unlike those affecting washerwomen and domestic servants." Frequent contact with soap and" water, a fact which willappeal to schoolboys, are to blame for certain skin diseases. But it is moi'e from diseases communicated by customers (which, needless to say, may be passed on to other customers), and that "many persons of poor constitution and physically unsuitable seek employment in this profession," that the worst ills come. • . Although in the country there is the most rigid supervision of the barber, and probably conditions are second_only to those in the United States, a few facts are worthy of note. "In the courseof an inquiry undertaken at' Zurich, examination was made of the shaving brushes, hair brushes, combs,: razors, scissors, strops, towels, etc. It should be said that the establishments were submitted to this inquiry from their own free will, and 1 were among the best kept from the hygienic standpoint." The inquiry showed that even the best-kept barbers' shops contained materials that were seriously infected.