TRADES AND LABOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 16

TRADES AND LABOUR.

AUCKLAND UNION ACTIVITIES. (By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE W.VEK. Monday, April -I.—Drivers' Committee, Grocers' Assistants. Tuesday, April s.—Seamen. Wednesday, April 6.—Bakers. Encouraged by the enthusiasm displayed ;„t the Sunday mass meetings of unionists in the Domain Cricket Ground, the Auckland Labour Representation Committee has circularised the local unions to attend a public demonstration against the policy of the Government to-morrow afternoon in the Domain. Messrs. R. Semple, F. Langstonc and PI. G. R. Mason, M.P.'s, will outline the suggested legislation and its effect on civil servants, wage workers employed and unemployed, old age and war pensioners, etc. Headed by the Watersidere' Band and the M.P.'s, the procession will assemble at the top of Beresford Street and march to the cricket ground. Loud speakers will be installed so that all can comfortably hear the speeches. EASTER INTERVAL. After passing the Arbitration Amendment Bill and the Mortgagors' Relief Bill Parliament adjourned over Easter, and will meet again next week. But the passing of the Act by the Lower House did not write the word 'finis' on the firstnamed Act, as it was forwarded on to the Legislative Council too late to deal with before the adjournment, and it will be one of the first measures to be dealt with by the Upper House when it reassembles. Since the passage through the Lower Houses- many erstwhile opponents to the principles of arbitration have had time for reflection, and they now realise that in throwing over the principle of compulsory arbitration with its 38 years' record a grave blunder has been committed; to use a homely simile, we shall be out of the frying pan and into the fire. Men who have kept silent during the stormy passage of the bill through the Lower House now have some opinion upon the matter when it is too late, and express fear for the future. A legislator in conversation this week forecasted some amendments when the Legislative Council considers the bill next week, so that probably the matter is not finished yet. In our columns on Wednesday and Thursday of this week there are some articles commenting upon the blunder that has been so impetuously committed, and authorities like Professors ContllilTe and Bclshaw are quoted in opposition. These articles are well worth preserving for future reference by thoughtful readers.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. Under the bill, as it now stands, a dispute must be submitted for consideration by a Conciliation Committee, 011 which both sides are evenly represented, and if a settlement is arrived at, well and good. But either side can hold out against a settlement or against submitting the dispute to arbitration, in which case, proceedings fall to the ground and the employers in the industry concerned have a free hand to observe what working conditions they desire. That was fhe position in existence before the old Act was passed. Any hours were worked, wages were regulated by the law of supply and demand, apprentices were not indentured legally or by word of mouth, and boys learning a trade were classed as improvers serving no specific term before they graduated as journeymen. This is the state of affairs that is looked forward to by the killers of the Act as necessary for the wellbeing and progress of our Dominion. Employers in trades and manufacturers will have more cause to regret the passing of the Act than many other people, for there will be no stability of working conditions while contracts are being carried out under fixed prices. If times are bad, cheap labour can be obtained, but if, as we hope, things improve in a couple of years the workers cannot be blamed if, watching their opportunity, they spring the wages up in the middle of a contract, when labour is scarce. It has happened before in my own experience and it can happen again. Small unions will have to merge into the bigger ones, in self-defence, concentration will take place, and "The One Big Union" will be a power in the Dominion. I have always fought against this movement in the past, as I held the opinion that a union in a particular trade or calling knew its own affairs better than did a central executive upon which it had no direct representation. But aggregation of interests must now come, and the Government, urged on by the agricultural section of the community, has furnished the impetus and the weapon, by which the unionists can hope to defend themselves.

"TOO BIG" BUSINESS. Mr. Angus Watson, J.P., writing in the "Manchester Guardian," says: — "This week I have a letter from the United States, in which the writer eays: 'The period of mass production and exploitation is actually ending, since its work is done, and we are being left with ail excess of machinery, financial and mechanical, on our hands, the liquidation of which will be slow and costly, with a readjustment of commerce which will go to the bottom of our whole ccmception and order of life. We are so tangled up in every way with the machine age which you are at present free from.' "The discovery," adds Mr. Angus Watson, "that mechanical industry, which has not behind it consideration for the human factor, finally breaks clown is amply confirmed by our experiences at home. The rationalisation of our railways has resulted in a loss to the pub-

lie of £100,000,000, while a similar experience with the Royal Mail Steamship Company, in which a public loss of some £25,000,000 has to be faced, confirms the same lesson.

"Recently I was informed by one of our leading shipbuilders that there are only four solvent shipbuilding concerns in this country, all of them under individual management. The plain fact, of course, is that the highly technical art of commercial control is more successfully carried out by individuals than by executive management, and that when a. business enterprise reaches a point when it is no longer within the grasp of a guiding hand it ccases to function successfully."

PREFERENCE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Changes of Government in Australia mean marked changes in conditions affecting the public service. In New South Wales, for instance, railway employees must join unions, but in the Commonwealth divisions men are to be free agents in the matter.

The Lang Government has caused notices to be issued to the staffs of the railways instructing all employees to become financial members of a trade union by March 31. The instruction is the result of a decision by the LangCabinet last November to the effect that Ministers should insist that all employees in their respective Departments shall become unionists. It was stated that about 5000 members of railway staffs would be directly affected by the decision. These were not members of bona fide unions. Officials of the various railway unions expressed gratification at the Government's decision that all railway workers must become bona fide unionists, and that they must also become financial before March 31. It was stated that a fair percentage of the members of unions were behind with the payment of their dues, and they would now be compelled to make themselves financial.

In the Commonwealth jurisdiction the Government has cancelled the regulations issued by the Scullin Government, which instructed that no public service employee was to receive the benefits of the public service arbitrator's award unless the employee joined the organisation appropriate to his occupation within a reasonable time. Circulars announcing the new policy have been issued from the Public Service Board to all Departments. The circular notifies heads of Departments of a new regulation instructing that award rates laid down by the public service arbitrator shall be paid to all employees, whether unionists or not.