MEN'S VIEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 200, 24 August 1937, Page 8

MEN'S VIEWS.

WHY WORK STOPPED. QUESTION OF WAGES. OFFICIAL STATEMENT. The committee representing the men engaged at Orakei issued the following official statement, this morning: — "A few weeks ago the men working on the Government housing scheme at Orakei felt that the conditions were ii) tolerable, a stop-work meeting was neld, and a number of demands sent to the firm for consideration. These conditions concerned everybody on the job and the men of all trades took united action. This matter was finalised at the time and finished with.

"Recently, after finding that the Wellington carpenters working on the housing jobs there were being paid 2/7} an hour, the carpenters at Orakei decided to ask for more money. They felt that as they had been losing more* time than the men at Wellington, while in every other way the conditions were equal, they were just as much entitled to the extra money ae the Wellington men. The contracts had both been tendered for on the same basis by the same firm under the same conditions and for the same scheme.

Would Be Invidious. "Mr. J. A. Lee, M.P., was approached. He agreed that it would be invidious to differentiate between the men engaged on the scheme as carried out in the two towns, and stated that he would do what he could to have the matter adjjsted." "On Wednesday, August 18, a telegram was received from Wellington etating that it was deemed to be an Auckland matter, end when the men received thin information they demanded that the matter be taken further. The firm was then approached, but refused to do anything, and the men's delegates from the job met on Thursday evening to discuss the matter. They decided to make certain recommendations, which included a stop-work meeting at 8 a.m. on Friday. "At this meeting it was unanimously decided to approach the firm again with the delegation from the job, demanding 2/8 an hour. The firm's representative stated that it was not the firm who had given the rise in Wellington, but that it was authorised by the Builders' Association, and refused to do anything in the matter. On this being reported to the men they decided to cease work for the day and to hold a further stopwork meeting at 8 a.m. on Monday to hear the result of any conference that had been held in the meantime." Stop-work Meeting. "Mr. W. J. Lyon, M.P., then endeavoured to arrange a conference between the men's representatives and the t Builders' . Association, this conference being timed to take place on Monday. In the meantime a telegram. had been received from Wellington stating- that the rise had been arranged with the firm alone, the Builders' Association not coming into the matter, and that tlm was time was admitted later by the representative of the firm.

"At Monday morning's stop-work meeting it was decided not to go back to work until after the conference had been held; that the men's delegates were authorised to meet the representatives of the firm, and that it was not considered to be a matter for the Builders' Association. The meeting was then adjourned until Tuesday morning. "The delegates then attended the conference, two of them being carpenters working on the job, and although they stated that they were not prepared to discuss the matter with the Builders' Association, the representative of the Fletcher Construction Company refused to meet them in any other way. "Mr. Lyon endeavoured to arrange things in a conciliatory spirit, but the employers refused to consider any concession, and the association stated that they would forbid the firm taking any individual action whatever. As the definite, deadlock could not be broken the conference was closed, and Mr. Lyon stated that the matter would be taken to the authorities in Wellington." Ruling Rate. "During the conference the employers denied the statement made by the men's delegates that the ruling rate throughout the district was now more than the award, and stated that plenty of carpenters could be obtained in answer to any advertisement offering minimum rates, this being a definite contradiction of all the statements.that have recently been made about the scarcity of tradesmen.

"At the same time the men'e delegates ' stressed the fact that so much time had been lost on this particular job that wages had been kept well below the basic wage as an average and that, in fact, only two full weeks had been worked since the inception of the scheme. Furthermore, the conditions were particularly hard on this job, in that a number of men were continuously engaged outside, whereas on ordinary cottage work the men were soon working under a roof. "On Tuesday morning only one bus ran, so a meeting woe arranged in the Trades Hall and the men On the job were, brought in, while those who were waiting for buses went straight up to the hall. In the meantime the national secretary, Mr, J. Moulton, approached Mr. Fletcher and was tpld that nothing would be considered by the firm. "The meeting in the Trades Hall was called and it was decided to make it exclusively a carpenters' meeting, 150 being pvesent. The chairman' gave a short report on the situation, calling then upon Mr. Stanley to give a full report of the conference proceedings. This was done, and Mr. Moulton was then asked to say a few words. Unanimous Decision. "Tt was then moved that the eecret ballot be taken, but this was overwhelmingly lost on the voices and it was moved that the men should refuse to go back until a favourable decision was arrived at. This was declared carried unanimously. •"It was then moved that a committee of ten be formed. This was also carried unanimously. It was resolved that the committee should carry on in the interim, and that a meeting of all the men be held in the Trades Hall at 9 a.m. every morning while the affair is still bein<* carried on. It was then decided that the meeting should adjourn until to-mor-row morning/'