FIVE-DAY WEEK

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21908, 8 October 1936, Page 11

FIVE-DAY WEEK

AUCKLAND UNIONS* SCHEME

NO SHOPPING ON SATURDAY

(PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGBAXt.) AUCKLAND. October 7. In an effort to institute a universal five-day week in New Zealand, it is reported that a proposal, originating in Auckland and intended to spread throughout the Dominion, has as its main object refusal to patronise shops on Saturday mornings. Union secretaries in the city, it is stated, intend to prepare circulars for distribution among their members, calling upon them to see that their household shopping is done on Fridays. There is said to have been a preliminary discussion already among union secretaries. The suggestion is that the move is the outcome of recent complaints that in certain industries where the 40-hour week could properly be recognised, men were obliged to work on Saturdays when there was no obvious necessity for it. It is suggested also that certain unions are aggrieved that they have not received the benefit of an Arbitration Court award granting them the 40-hour week, and they see In the proposal to discipline shops an opportunity of levelling differences between working conditions among unionists: The proposal apparently is to circularise every unionist in Auckland, then to organise a mass meeting of workers to affirm the policy. Meanwhile the Trades and Labour Council and the Alliance of Labour are to be advised, and their support solicited. Every union in the country is to be kept posted on the subject, and with the backing of the council and Hie alliance Auckland unionists are sanguine of carrying their purpose into effect.