WAREHOUSE WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1208, 17 August 1911, Page 2

WAREHOUSE WORKERS

$ NEW UNION'S DEMANDS. B!G INCREASE OF THE WAGES BILL. PREFERENCE WANTED. Heads.of wholesale houses, merchants, indent agents, niul shop-keepers received something liko a shock on opening their mail yesterday morning, Tnis was "a list ot claims for the belter working conditions and increa»jd wages" which lias .Di-tn formulated by llio licwlv-iorined "Wellington Amalgamated Employees in hardware, soft goods, drugs, stationery, oUieo, ligiiting, and cycle appliance, boots, coal, leal her grindery, cement, seed, wino and spirit, oil, glaf=, watchmakers and jewellers, fancy goods, dairy produce, aerate:! water, i'mit, and confectionery establishments, and wholesale grocery as ; iistnuts' industrial union of workers, the short title of which is "The Wellington Amalgamated Society of Merchants Assistants," the secretary of which is Mr. G. Ci. Farland. The letter which covered the list ot claim;; slated that the union desired to hold a conference with the employers with a view of coming to an aniicablo agreement, Failing a favourable answer to this' request within ten days the matter would be referred to tho Conciliation Commissioner for settlement. THE DEMANDS. ' Tho new union defines a wholesale merchant's assist ant as any person employee; in any capacity other than a driver, relative to the reception, packing, display, sale or delivery of goods in or in connection with tho. wholesale establishments coming within the union's. scope. Persons employed in establishments doing a wholesale and retail trade conjointly, shall, for the purpose of the claims, be defined as wholesale merchants' assistants. Wholesale merchants' assistants shall be classified as follow:—Head storemen, second sl'oremen, general storcmen, packers, warehousemen, porters, cleaners, lift men, nightfatchmon. Junior shall be held to mean an employee under twentyone years of age, and senior shall be held to mean an employee over twenty-one years of age. WAGES AND HOURS. The wages to be paid to senior me* chants' assistants other than warehousemen shall be- not less than is shown in the following scale:—Head storeman, where five or mora are employed, £1 10s.; second storeman, where five or more are employed, £3 10s.; packers, £3 10s.; general storemen, £3 55.; head storeman, where two to four storemen are employed, £3 155.; second storeman, where two to four storemen are employed, £3 7s. Gd.; only storeman, £3 7s. Gd.; porters, cleaners, liftmen, £2 15s. Boys begin at 12s. Gd. a week and rise at the third year of service to 355. per week. Workers in their seventh years of service are to receive .£3 10s. a week. Buyers £2 Ills, above senior rates. Casual warehousemen are to be paid 25 per cent abovo award rates. Hours are to be from 8 a.m. to noon,, and 1 p m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays to noon. All other time is to bo overtime. Business places optraing at 9 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m. shall not be interfered with, providing no longer than 44 hours a week arc worked. Overtimo is to be paid at tho rate'of time and a half. For casual labourers Is. id. per hour is demanded. The usual clause as to aged, infirm, or inexperienced labour is inserted in the demand. FEMALE WORKERS. Equal pay is asked for female employees, the demands stipulating that in establishments where female assistants are employed in the place ot warehousemen, wages shall bo paid accordmg to warehousemen's scale. The holidays throughout the year shall be Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Anniversary Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day, .the-Sovereign's Birthday, Prince, of Wales' Birthday, Union Picnic Day, and any day which pursuant to proclamation by tho Governor, or on the request "of the Mayor is generally obsorved s a holiday or half-holiday. All work douc on any holiday shall be paid at overtime rates. All work done on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, and Good Friday, shall be paid -for tit double ordinary rates. A fortnight's holiday shall ha granted dur. ing the course of the year on full pay to all assistants who have been employed for a longer period than twelve months. If a business establishment is closed on account of a holiday falling in the'same week this shall .not. deprive any assistant from his or her half-holiday.

• ■ ' PREFERENCE WANTED. Preference is wanted. Tho claim under this head reads:—"ln thy event of an employer employing a non-unionist he shall, within a week after the coming into force of ■ this award and thereafter, send notice of Ihe samo to the secretary of the union. If, after within one week of receiving this notice, the union secretary supplies a main who is equally competent and willing to undertake tho work required to be done, then and in such case the member of tho union shall bo employed in preference to tho nonunionist, unkss the latter, within the period aforementioned, shall have becomo a member of the union." Tho members of tho union are to, pay fees to the union as follow:—Entrance fee: Males, 55.; females, 2s. Bdj; weekly contributions, Gil. A reasonable opportunity must be allowed the accredited representative of the union to visit employees to collect dues. Employees engaged in doing work which is paid for at a higher rate than that which they usually perform shall receivo tho higher rate for the term employed on such work. \ Each assistant on leaving or being discharged from his or her employment shall be given a reference in writing, stating • the position held, length of service, character, and ability. POSITION OF WAREHOUSEMEN. Some inquiries were made yesterday as to the numerical strength of the- union among tho warehousemen of the city— those engaged in the display and sale of goods in tho departments of the big warehouses—but all oonsulted stated that they were- not members of tho union, and some were quite emphatic in stating that they did not iutond to be dragged into any such concern. Further, one pointed out that the hours were to be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., instead of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, as at present. If the employers wero forced to accept an award they could not be blamed for bringing all hands down at 8 a.m. IT IS A JOKE! One manager treated the whole business as a joke. "There is no 'discontent among our people that I know of," said he, "and here is a man who comes along, gets a few names, and forms a union which is calculated to upset the present pleasant relations between tho heads and the workers. Some of the demands are too funny, and tempts one to think that the whole thing is a joke. Tho man who happens to have ths care of the keys has to receive 10s. extra per week, so I will have to get up myself, and open the warehouse, I suppose. Head storemeu, wh<, gel iJ3 ot ,£3 5s per week now, are to get M ids.; and second storemen. who now got ,£2 10s., are to receive £3 10s, which is very nice indeed for the men., No juniors are to be employed in the packing room, which is hard oil tho youngsters, who are qualifying for storemen and warehousemen. Our people are allowed to buy goods needed by themselves and wives at wholesale prices, which means a good bit every year. This, of course, would bo stopped under the proposed now order of things. "There- is a preference clause, too. Have you seen it? Here it provides that if I have a first-class staff of men who decline to join the union—men, perhaps, with twenty years' service behind them —I must allow the union official to displace them. This would be preposterous in our business, wlicro the men are valued because they know our clients well, and our clients know them." It is understood that a conference is being arranged by Mr. Grenfell, of the Employers' Association, and tho union, to take place in a few days' time. WHAT THE UNION SECRETARY SAYS. Mr. G. G. Farland, the organising secretary for the union, states that the organisation was registered on March 27 last, and at present numbers about 350

members, nil employers in wholesale houses. Later on it was the intention to bring in tire retail assistants, who were at _ the present time unprotected by a lining. The wages paid ;ip till the present had been low," and though several attempts had bftn made to organise tho industry none were successful until the present union was formed. Tho firms concerned were well able to bear an increase in wages for the men specifically dealt with in the demands, and if the wages asked for were agreed to it would merely mean one application of the level-Wg-up process to a class of worker who has hitherto been neglected. It had been given out by one or two of tho employers that tho demands wore preposterous, 'but he could say that they have been most carefully made, especially when one considered how the cost, of living had gone Jin in_ Wellington during recent years. The rise asked for was due, amongst other causes, to increases which had been granted to workers in other spheres of industry, and these men had borne tho effect of those increases without being benefited themselves. It was generally the case that the employers who pay the least cry out tho loudest. Already a. number of the firms concerned had granted the increases before, the demands were made, and at least one other firm had mado it up to their men in the form of a bonus at tho end of the year,