CONDITIONS ON PUBLIC WORKS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22662, 17 March 1939, Page 4

CONDITIONS ON PUBLIC WORKS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS Sir, —It was not my intention to continue further in your columns regarding the above conditions. However, only fools never change their minds; and my reasons for changing mine are many. One is the address given in Palmerston North by the Leader of the Opposition, thd Hon. Adam Hamilton, who mentioned that the Labour Government had started to tighten belts some six months ago. I and many more employed on public works can endorse those remarks; in fact, I defy anyone to dispute it regarding the last 12 months preceding this date. One has only to compare wages earned on this section in 1937-38 with those earned in 1938-39, beginning say, March, 1937. In to-day’s issue of “The Press” I notice that Mr Semple is advocating the co-operative system to the water- : front problems conference. The co- , operative system on this section, I must say, is a fiasco. Mr Semple says the ■ money earned by a party is pooled by 1 the men. This is certainly contrary ’ to facts. I will endeavour to state what is happening to some co-operative parties not so very far from this camp. ■ A party works a period of 20 days. I The men are then paid a lump sum for the progress they have‘made, but the department then has a definite say as • to how it is to be divided among the ; men in the party. Some receive a very much larger share than others; ’ the party’s wishes are not considered. ■ I should like to ask Mr Semple if that i is the correct method to adopt with : a co-operative party, or does he only ; preach Socialism, but never put it into L practice? One has every reason to wonder. Another instance which gives reason ' for deep thought is the following. One co-operative contract party which works three shifts a day, including Saturdays, has a man employed by the department watching over the men while they work. This means that three men are employed and paid out of the public purse at £6 a week, amounting to £lB a week, and each has a motor-car to run about it. It is not unusual to see at least three men at a time standing over the men while they are working, for hours on end, each aniving in a car provided. There have been as many as six of these departmental cars at this particular job at the one time, when one would • have been sufficient. All of

this goes towards the upkeep of a co-operative party’s operations. It makes the blood boil in any man whose sympathies are with the Labour Government. Mr Semple will probably say: “Take it to your union in the usual constitutional manner” and “I will rectify your complaints.” As a staunch unionist, I have every reason to believe that the Workers’ Union is only a name. The spirit of unionism has been broken by the officials who' run it. A strike is only avoided here by the thoughts of embarrassing our beloved leader, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage. I would willingly sign my own name, but for the thoughts of being "bluffed, bullied and bulldozed” out of my job. —Yours, etc., JACK HAMMER. Oaro, March 14, 1939.