LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 14

LABOUR NOTES.

UNION ACTIVITIES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK.

This Evening, April B.—Fellmongers. Monday, April 10.—Furniture Trades, Drivers.

UNEMPLOYMENT FOR THE WINTER

The visit of the Minister of Employment, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, to Auckland this week, has caused the question of unemployment to receive more than usual attention, owing to the large and representative deputation that met the Minister on Tuesday. Members of Parliament, social workers, trades union officials and representatives of the unemployed combined in one big effort to impress the Minister that though much had been done during the summer and past winter to find work and sustenance for the unemployed, much more would have to be done during the approaching winter to prevent the creation of a most critical position. The Mayor, Mr. G. W. Hutchison, led off as first speaker, followed by the chairman of the Hospital Board, Mr. W. Wallace and the city missioners. All the speakers were earnest in their requests for a more liberal treatment of the unemployed in the coming stress.

Other speakers voiced bitter complaints concerning the dealings of the Department with men who had had the good fortune to secure a day's work outside the various departmental schemes. It was alleged that in these cases the recipients had been penalised by having to stand down for a fortnight. The officers of the Department deny these allegations, and the Minister has promised to hold an inquiry into the complaints. He also promised to pay a return visit in a month's time to see how things were progressing. Much was made of the fact that meu had refused to go into country camps where the work was paid at the rate of 10/ per day, but it was afterwards admitted that it was piecework at the rate of 10/ per day, and no one could make that amount.

In my recent visit to the South I was impressed with the fact that there is much more privation as the result of unemployment in Auckland than there is in the South. Also one does not hear bitter complaints of the administration of the Labour Department in the South as in Auckland. Whether it is because of the smaller number concerned, or because of more sympathetic treatment given, I am not prepared to say. It may have been eased somewhat by the gigantic harvesting operations just concluded, from Canterbury through to Southland, but I did not observe the stress and poverty that exists in Auckland. That such does exist, is only too painfully evident from the reports of our social workers. They report cases of children suffering from malnutrition caused by insufficient food, and we, as a Dominion, have produced meat, butter, cheese, wool and wheat to a record amount this year. In wheat alone, the yield in the South has been so good that the Government has decided to export the surplus of 7700 tons, or about 2,000,000 bushels, at 2/ a bushel, to prevent too great a cheapening of wheat in the Dominion, and a consequent lowering of the price of the 21b loaf. When the depression first started there was a popular idea that it was only temporary, and would soon pass over, and the scale of payments was fixed at something just sufficient to tide men over the crisis. This year a large number of relief workers will have entered their third winter on relief pay, so that for three years their relief pay has been their living wage, and the end is not yet in sight. , SIX-HOUR DAY SCHEME. Mr. Randolph Hearst, the American millionaire newspaper magnate, has given "big business" a serious fright by his declaration in favour of the universal adoption of a six-hour day, according to the "Journeyman Baker." Through the many newspapers under his control, Mr. Hearst has declared that "capital might just as well understand, here and now, that public opinion will no longer permit employers to monopolise all the benefits of invention, but will insist on these benefits being shared with their employees. It is time for another reduction in hours. Labour-saving machinery makes a reduction of hours possible, and, in fact, necessary. Otherwise vast numbers of workers will be thrown out of employment. It has been the habit of the employing class to take the full benefit of labour-saving machinery and to capitalise it, depriving the workers of their due share of this" benefit. The advantage of labour-saving machinery should be distributed to the employers in greater profits and to the consumers in cheaper prices, but above all to the workers in shorter hours, better wages and better living conditions."

TRANSPORT DRIVERS' AWARD. , Happily the transport drivers' award dispute has been settled. The terms accepted by the workers are in substantial advance on those submitted by the employers at the first sitting of the Conciliation Council. The employers originally proposed £4 a week, with a 104-hour fortnight. The employees' counter-proposals were that drivers of motor omnibuses substantially engaged in town and suburban transport were to work not more than 44 hours a week, the daily hours not to exceed eight, to be worked within a span of 11 consecutive hours. Bach driver was to be allowed a day off a week. No driver should be required to work continuously for more than eix hours without an interval for a meal. The proportion of broken shifts to straight shifts should not be more than two to seven. The minimum wage was to be £5 a week and overtime 3/l£ » n hour. It was proposed tliat drivers of service care should be paid a minimum of £5 a week for vehicles with a seating capacity not exceeding seven passengers; and £5 5/ a week for those exceeding seven passengers. There was obviously a big discrepancy in the respective demands, but that the spirit of sweet reasonableness- eventually prevailed is evidenced by the summary of the rates of wages and conditions which were finally decided upon. Drivers are to receive £4 5/ weekly and learners, £3 8/. A 96-hour fortnight was fixed, 11 hours to be worked daily, within a span of 13. Time and a quarter for the first four hours a fortnight, and time and a half thereafter is to be paid as overtime. Holidays are to be _14 days' annually on full pay, with a minimum qualifying period of four months. Broken shifts were arranged as two in six or four in twelve.