The Dominion THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1921. SHEARERS AND THE NEW AWARD

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 302, 15 September 1921, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1921. SHEARERS AND THE NEW AWARD

The action taken by the executive of the New Zealand Workers’ Union in reference to the new shearers award is an instructive example of the lengths to which Labour bosses are prepared to go in absolute disregard of the interests and welfare of those whom they represent. No one in touch with the facts will doubt for, a moment that the instruction to shearers to refuse employment under the new award is issued only because union officials are anxious to hide their own discomfiture and are unwilling to confess the truth —that in the proceedings leading up to the award they made claims which it was impossible to justify and which neither the Arbitration Court nor any otherimpartial tribunal could possibly have admitted. Shearers are better placed than <most people to understand that the general secretary of tho New Zealand Workers’ Union (Mr. C. Grayndler) is talking arrant nonsense when he says that the industry cannot afford to bo held up, and that he expects the sheepowners “will be compelled to capitulate in a month’s time.” A proportion of the shearers undoubtedly will refuse to sacrifice well-paid employment merely in order to salve the wounded self-importance of their union officials, but even if it were otherwise there would be no danger in existing conditions of the industry being held up, or of sheepfarmery being compelled to’ concede extortionate and unfair demands. The assertion that 'the new award is unjust, to shearers is completely answered in tho fact that farmers throughout the Dominion are quite ready to do their own shearing, by methods of mutual aid, where shearers refuse to do the work at the rates the Count has fixed. Even if no question had arisen about rates, many farmers would have dispensed this season with the assistance of outside shearers. It is no new thing for tho man on tho. land to ease the pressure of bad times by an extra working effort. Any attempt now made to set aside the new award will simply impel farmers to rely to a still greater extent upon their own efforts, made more effective by neighbourly cooperation. A fair idea of the arrangements that are being made in various parts of the Dominion was given by a farmer in some observations reported in our news columns yesterday. Farmers, he said, could always help one another, and were not in the least scared by the shearers. Wait until my family and my neighbours get going (lie remarked). We’ll show shearers what work really is. I have offers now from my neighbours, ‘and I have mads similar offers to them. We’ll have a good old shearing ‘ "bee." He added that in the South Island many high school boys would assist materially with tho operations during their holidays. 1 As shearers and other people know, this is not idle boasting, but an outline' of a perfectly practicable working plan which can be carried out all over the Dominion. -In spite of anything the shearers may do or refuse to do, farmers will contrive to shear their flocks. In some cases tho work will take longer than usual and the packing of part of the new season’s clip will be correspondingly delayed, but this is a minor consideration in view of the present overstocked condition of the wool market. ,

The point shearers in their own interests ought to consider is that they will do much more to prejudice their own prospects than those of farmers if they allow themselves to be deluded into refusing employment under the new award. Apart from the fact that farmers are well and f urably placed to copo with tho. immediate emergency, many of them will regard a month or two of laborious work as well worth while if it enables them to effect a substantial reduction in working costs. The advantages to be gained in this way are not confined to a single season, but in proportion as farmers are compelled during the present season to rely upon their own efforts and the assistance of their families and neighbours in shearing their flocks they will be likely to adopt such measures permanently, or at all events until easier times return. Particularly in times like these-, when a reduction in working costs offers many farmers their only apparent means of keeping their heads above water, shearers cannot do themselves worse service than by allowing it to be widely realised that they arc not necessary and can bo done without. Moreover, they will find that employment at other classes of work

is scarce enough everywhere just now, and many of them will find themselves swelling.the ranks of the unemployed. If they arc alive to their own interests, they will examine the whole position carefully in all its bearings before they decide to obey the injunction to refuse employment under the new award. Putting aside prejudice and the special pleading of their union officials, they cannot but realise that they are offered work under fair and even generous conditions. While the 'wool-growing industry was prosperous, they shared in its prosperity. Now that the industry has fallen temporarily on evil days, it still offers them cmploymerit at rates which compare by no means unfavourably with those paid to any important group of workers of a similar grade in the Dominion. It is obvious that if they refuse employment in these conditions they will do little to embarrass the sheep-farmers, but much to destroy their own place and footing in the wool-growing industry.