AN IMPORTANT MEETING.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20712, 24 November 1932, Page 5

AN IMPORTANT MEETING.

WELLINGTON WATERSIDERS SALARIES OF OFFICIALS TO BE REVIEWED.

••PRLSS ASSOCIATION MSIKU i'.AM. > WELLINGTON, November 23. A stop-work meeting to be held to morrow morning by the Wellington waterside workers will possibly have far-reaching effects upon the salaries of union officials throughout New Zealand. The meeting is to discuss the question of handling frozen meat from freezing works whero non-union labour is employed, and will be continued until noon, instead of breaking up at 10 o'clock as is usual. The result of this discusMon will affect Wellington only, tho unions atiwach port deciding whether or not they will load meat, and on this question there is no unanimity among the unions, New Plymouth, Wanganui, and Wellington to date having Tefuscd to touch non-union meat, while at Auckland, Gisborne, and Napier the watersiders are now handling meat.

Pay and Number of Officials.

Another question ■which it is understood is to bo brought up by a largo body of men will, however, probably have far-reaching effects. This is the question of a reduction in the dairies and in the numbers of union officials. It is freely stated that many of the Wellington waterside workers consider that they are paying too many officials and paying them far too much from their present greatly reduced earnings. They consider that the only official to draw a salary should bo the secretary, and that he should be paid on the basis of a 44 hour week at the basic rate of pay of 2s an hour, that is £4 8a a week, or £228 16a a year. Last year officials' wages accounted for £775, officials in receipt of salary being the secretary and acting-secretary, the walking delegate, and the acting walking delegate, while honoraria to the president, treasurer, librarian, and the Foxton delegate accounted for £sl, and the upkeep of the motor-car at the disposal of the secretary and the walking delegate a further £79. Thi.4 the men consider to be out of all proportion, especially as the slackness in shipping has reduced their wages very considerably during the past two years. Keserve Fund. Further big items in their expenditure which they desire to see Teduced arc tho capitation fees to the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Federation and to tho New Zealand Labour Party, particularly the first, which amounted last year to £370. This body of men considers, it is stated, that the union should by now have a largo reserve fund, as there has been no industrial trouble necessitating drawing upon tho fund for a number of years. Instead of a large fund, however, there was in tho last annual balance-sheet of tho union a credit balance of only £724 in the bank. The men thu3 contond that their contributions merely paid officials' salaries and did not build up a reservo fund as they should. Another Opinion. t A second body of men, it is understood, desire to go even further and to break up the union and form a new one having no salaried officials at all. Sh.ould either of these bodies of men be in a majority at to-morrow's meeting and either reduce officials' salaries or discard them altogether, as is considered quite possible, it will in all probability have a far-reaching effect upon other industrial unions. It is stated that many men belonging j to other unions also consider t,hat as their own wages have been cut those of their officials should also be cut, and that the number of paid officials should be decreased to the bare minimum, and they are only waiting for a 1 lead ro ' n one o.f the unions to put these cuts into force. Thus it appears that the meeting of the Wellington Waterside Workers Union may be a momentous one in t e history of unionism in New Zealand.