LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 17

LABOUR NOTES.

UNION ACTIVITIES. (By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Monday. October 4—Shipwrights. Tailors (committee). Gas Employees. Tuesday, October s—Seamen. Drivers. Engineers. Wednesday, October C—Auckland Carpenters. Ireneral Labourers. Local Bodies Labourers. Tramways (a.m. and p.m.) Thursday, October 7 —Tilers (committee).

CLERICAL WORKERS. When the Labour Government took office and restored the provisions of the Arbitration Act with its recognition of compulsory unionism, a wonderful impetus was given to union membership throughout the Dominion, and not only did workers flock to join unions already in existence, but workers in industries or callings with no union in operation and, consequently, no award and no settled working conditions, quickly organised themselves into unions of their own. Among others the clerks and members of what has sometimes been termed rather descriptively, "the white collar brigade," formed a Clerical Workers' Union in every important centre, and these in turn were federated until the aggregate reached well on for 20,000. Working agreements were soon being compiled, but an appeal from some of the employers to a legal tribunal elicited a decision that the clerical workers did not work in "an industry" but were scattered over all the industries in the Dominion, therefore they bad no right to register in a comprehensive union. This gave "check" to the new federation, and for months the offlcials have had to mark time under promise from the Government that the legal technicality that had halted their progress would be put right by legislation. That promise has been fulfilled, and last Tuesday the billwhich restores tiie industrial status to clerical and other workers, which was challenged by the recent decision of the Court of Appeal, was put through all stages and passed without amendment. The clerical workers' unions will now resume their interrupted applications for Arbitration Court awards. PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEES. The effect of having such a firm, straight-out speaker and administrator as the Hon. Robert Semple as Minister of Public Works has been not without results in the efficiency of the men in that Department. Not so long ago, we used to get reports of "lingering" and "swinging the lead" by the men in the Public Works gangs, but speaking to someone in the Department lately, I gathered that such malpractices have almost entirely disappeared and the men are giving satisfactory returns for the higher wages paid to them. The erection of the Mohaka viaduct in the Hawke's Bay district, one of the most dangerous and difficult engineering jobs iu the southern hemisphere, some months under the time allowed for it, is a case in point. It is gratifying to know that | we are getting value for the big money expended on our Public Works. The Department is also strict with its employees in the matter of holidays, for a memorandum to all Public Works employees states: "It is not desirable that Departmental- workmen should go harvesting and haymaking during the Christmas-Xew Year vacation and thus compete with unemployed or other available men; but there will be no objection to workmen who are not entitled to annual leave on pay during the Christmas-Xew Year vacation if there is a real shortage of suitable labour in the district, and farmers are unable, therefore, to obtain all the labour - they require, either directly or from the Government employment

bureaux. "Any workman who goes haymaking and harvesting during the ChristmasNew Year vacation must return to his Departmental work on the day fixed for resumption of work after the holidays, unless he has applied for and been granted special leave of absence, and if he does not do so he will not be entitled to payment for New Year's Day, which is a statutory holiday."

"CRITICISM IN RUSSIA IS TREASON." A telling contrast between Russian and British ideas of democracy was made by Sir Ernest Simon when he addressed the Liberal Summer School at Cambridge recently. "What.we in this country understand by democracy is freedom and a tolerant society in which every individual is allowed to live his own life and to speak his mind freely even in criticism of the Government. In fact, His Majesty's Opposition is an essential part of our Constitution. ' "In Russia things aTe fundamentally different. Criticism of the established order is treason. The Leader of the Opposition—Trotsky —is in exile, and would be shot if caught. "In England the Government is pressing Mr. Attlee as Leader of the Opposition to accept a salary of £2000 a yea* - . "Although while in Moscow we wera perfectly free to move about—we seemed in general to be as free as in London or Manchester—we came across many evidences of the lack of freedom." LABOUR AND EXTREMISTS.

"Let no one make any mistake— Labour movement has no intention of remaining passive, or regarding with a mistaken tolerance the attacks of those who seek to undermine its prestige, from whatever quarter they may come," said Sir Walter Citrine, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, in a recent speech. "There are signs that the slow method of permeation, inspired by political or other ends hostile to the trade union movement which has been notoriously employed by the Communist party in this country, is finding imitators. The movement must not be made the puppet of Communist, Fascist or other bodies, who have no real belief in its principles and policy. Militant opposition is inevitable and desirable in democratic movements. But that is entirely different from what we are witnessing to-day—an attempt to make the British working class the sport of insane and revolutionary experiments."