LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 23

LABOUR NOTES.

UNION ACTIVITIES. ! < (By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) ' MEETINGS. Monday, July s—Shipwrights, Tailors (Committee). Tuesday, July 6—Seamen. Drivers. i Wednesday, July 7—General Labourers. - Local Bodies Labourers. Owner-Drivers (Carriers' Association). Thursday, July B—Trades Council. Boilermakers. UNITY. Unity Las been something of a will-o'-the-wisp in industrial democracy for the last 25 years. About 1911 Walter Thomas Mills advocated, a United Labour party wherein both political and industrial bodies would be welded together. Very little success was attained. Next the United Federation of Labour came on the scene and reigned with considerable success until the war years, when through the action of a hostile Government it, too, went out of existence. The Alliance of Labour had been organised some years previously by the federations in the transport industry. At an open conference held in 1920 it was extended to include a number of other federations. The Trades and Labour Council had always functioned more or less successfully in the interest of the smaller organisations from the early 'nineties. Until a couple of months ago the Alliance of Labour and the Trades and Labour Council were both functioning. Both these organisations have now been disbanded and the Federation of Labour will take their place. Another step in the welding together of industrial and trade unions in the Auckland district will take place next Thursday in the Trades Hall. The meeting is called under the joint name of the late district council of the Alliance of Labour and the Trades and Labour Council on behalf of the Federation of Labour. Only those unions which have linked up and paid the capitation fee will be permitted to take part in the meeting. The meeting will decide to form a trades council under the new constitution of the Federation of Labour and apply for a charter. Temporary officers will be elected for three months and possibly the laying down of a policy to be pursued will be discussed. The new body will have its hands full for quite a while, as there are many questions awaiting consideration which only such a body can deal with. As it will be the industrial mouthpiece of the unions in Auckland, all questions outside the domestic affairs of the affiliated organisations will be referred to it, such as the better organisation of the workers in trade and industries; the linking up of various sections of workers not already organised in unions; the con- . sideration of disputes affecting allied workers; attention to industrial legisla--1 tion, and generally all matters affecting the workers as a body. 1 , A . number -of interpretations of ; awards have been delivered by various , magistrates in Dunedin, Wellington and , Auckland within the last few days, and it would be well : if those secretaries . whose workers may be affected would t take note of these interpretations, and i when forming new awards try to over - come the difficulties involved. In a . judgment by Mr. JC. R. Bartholomew.

iS.M., in Dunedin, the piece work rate cannot be altered because of a reduction of hours to 40 per week. Only in another iward can the alteration take place. On ;his question the union concerned, the Dtago Woollen Mills Employees' Union, ivill possibly appeal against the judgnent to the Arbitration Court. BASIC WAGE. As has been suggested the basic wage is a question for the new industrial Federation of Labour to deal with. A decision of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court of Australia has just been given. The judgment is interesting:— Increases in the basic wage averaging 5/ per week for all States, covering workers under Federal awards, were granted by the Commonwealth Arbitration Court. Thus the basic wage in Sydney rises to £3 IS/ a week, in Melbourne to £3 15/, Adelaide £3 12/, Perth, Hobart and Brisbane £3 14/. The Court in announcing its decision, said that after grave consideration it was of the opinion that the present degree of prosperity in the Commonwealth, and the existing circumstances of industry, made desirable an appreciable increase in the basic wage. In the New Zealand Court's judgment, Book of Awards, Volume 36, page 718, it states: "In Australia, under Statutes somewhat similar in scope and design to our own, basic wage rates have, for many years, been fixed both by the Commonwealth arbitration tribunals and by the various State arbitration tribunals. The basic wage rates at present prevailing there appear to be as follows:—Sydney £3 10/, Melbourne £3 f>/, Brisbane £3 4/. Adelaide £3 7/, Perth £3 8/, Hobart £3 9/. These are based on a man, his wife and two children. FREEDOM UNDER THE LAW. "This freedom of ours is necessarily based on law and order," said Lord Macmillan in a recent broadcast. "To some this may seem a contradiction in terms, for law to the popular mind suggests not freedom, but restraint; not liberty, but prisons and penalties. This conception of the part which law plays in our social life is, however, profoundly mistaken. The rule of law under which we live is nothing more or less than the system on which we have chosen to regulate all the manifold relations, domestic, commercial, industrial, social, political, which bring us into contact with each other, and which is designed to prevent these contacts becoming conflicts. It is an imperfect system like all human system's, and has resulted from centuries of trial and error. It is still growing and still changing, but its object, however imperfectly attained, is to secure to those who live under it freedom to ) develop and use their gifts and powers Jto the best of their ability and to receive the rewards to which their | labours entitle them. That is- what | we mean by freedom under the law."