CLOTHING COSTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 101, 1 May 1945, Page 3

CLOTHING COSTS

PROTEST BY UNION

"NO INCREASE JUSTIFIED"

Increases in clothing costs in relation to the higher wage rates and restricted working hours awarded by the Arbitration Court to clothing workers are the subject of a letter sent to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, by Mr. D. Brophy, acting-secretary of the Auckland Cutters, Pressers and Related Trades' Union. Mr. Brophy points out that the rate of pay of £5 17/6 for a chart clothing cutter is 4/2 less than the amount paid to skilled workers, although chart cutters had to serve an apprenticeship of five years. The same apprenticeship period is served by a joumevman stock cutter, whose wages are £5 12/(5, 9/2 less than the skilled rate. The wages of a journeyman pressor, who serves a four-year apprenticeship, are £5 10/, which is less than the rate of pay of semiskilled workers. Journeyman underpressers, who are paid £5 weekly, receive less than the unskilled rate of pay. These workers also serve a four-year apprenticeship. "The members of the cutters and pressers' union are of the opinion that no increases in the cost of clothing is justified under such a scale of wages," said Mr. Brophy.