LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 35, 9 August 1913, Page 12

LABOUR NOTES

(By “Unionist.”) r IMPROVED TERMS FOR DRAPERS. Drapers’ assistants in Melbourne have secured an amended Wages Board award, which increases the wages of senior male assistants from £2 18s to £3 per week, aiid gives the female senior-assistants a minimum wage of 32s weekly. Casual workers in the trade are awarded time and a-half rates on ordinary pay. The award is the best of its kina in Australasia. It is 6s per week advance on the conditions fixed for similar classes of workers in Wellington. U.L.P. ORGANISING. Mr. D. M'Laren, organiser of the United Labour Party, left yesterday on an organising tour in the Auckland district. He reports a successful visit to Christchurch. Very few of the unions in Christchurch have joined up with the new organisations. Many of them are chary of the high fees, the strike clauses, and the possibilities of the break up of existing trade federations if they affiliate with the United Federation of Labour. His efforts in Auckland will be to promote the continued existence of the Trades Council there, and the maintenance of existing trade federations together with continued affiliations with the U.L.P. HAIRDRESSING CONDITIONS. There has been a general revision of the labour conditions in the hairdressing trade in the three cities—Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Fresh wages boards awards have been made in each case. A wage of £2 16s per week is fixed in all places. The hours range from 50 to 64 per week. In Melbourne the work ceases at 2 p.m. on Saturdays, and in Adelaide at 1 o’clock, The agreement arrived at in the trade locally during the week is slightly better in respect of working hours tnan those of the three Australian cities, but Saturday closing is an advantage there over local conditions. ITEMS OF INTEREST. A by-election for the Darwin seat in the Tasmaniah Assembly was held on Tuesday last. In the absence of cable news it looks as though Labour had retained the seat. The Liberals were making a big bid to capture the seat, and put up Mr. Marshall, who ran Mr. O’Malley in the Federal poll to within 660 votes. If, as is likely, Labour retained the seat, the position of parties remains the same as at the General Election—Government 16 ? Labour Opposition 14. With a Liberal Speaker m the chair, the Government has a majority of one only on party divisions. Other by-elections are likely, and the Government’s position is none too certain. According to the last half-yearly report of the,Barrier Miners’ Union, there are now 8277 members in the organisation. Over 4000 members have joined since the new year; the increase being largely due to the ‘ ‘non-unionist” campaign on the field. The union is in a strong financial position, and has cash assets totalling, roughly, £7OOO in hand. Mr. Crawford Vaughan, who, on the resignation of Mr. John "Ferrari, was last week elected to the leadership of the South Australian Labour Patty, Was born in Adelaide in 1874. After a good local education he entered commercial life, but his ardent love of politics soon caused him to forsake the ledger for the hustings. He was a candidate in the first Federal elections, and although defeated, polled 11,800 votes. In 1905 he Successfully contested the Torrens seat in the Slate House. Five years later, when the Verran Government was formed, Mr. Vaughan was given the portfolio of Commissioner of Crown Lands and Treasurer, and he administered the department with marked ability. The new leader is a fine speaker, and is regarded as one of the most brilliant of , the Australian younger school of politicians.

“Never in the history of the industrial movement of this State,” says the secretary of the Sydney Labour Council in his annual report, “have we been faced with so many serious trade disputes as during this half-year. In 189091 we had the big strike, but that was one big Upheaval—the nearest approach one big unheaval—the nearest approach to a general strike we ever had in /this State—but after it was over strikes were practically unknown for a number of years—in fact, until the unions recovered from the defeat. _ No doubt we would have had a similar position again if we had permitted the extremists to bring about what they are pleased to term a ‘general strike’ in connection with the recent disputes, for the simple reason that we are not organised on strike lines. In the cases that I am abont to refer to, the strikes were all independent of one another, yet each one may have led up to a general strike, with the exception perhaps of the Wool-workers’ strike at Botany and the Coopers’ strike at Tooth’s Brewery, which, no doubt, would have been confined to a limited area. The Gas strike, Ferry strike, Railway strike, South Coast Miners' strike, and Boilermakers’ strike at Fitzroy Dock were all on a large scale, and very seriously affected other _ industries, particularly the Gas strike, which became more and more serious the longer it lasted, and was just ended in time to prevent what promised to be the biggest industrial upheaval ever known in this country. The fact that we were not .organised or prepared for such a, big event caused grave anxiety amongst many in our movement, and, be it recorded to the credit of the Gas men, that when the position was placed before them they took a broad view of the situation, and to the interest of the Labour movement as a whole agreed to the terms of settlement and returned to work.”

After a lengthy hearing a Wages Board award has been made in the bakery of Broken Hill. It provides a working week of 48 hours for both bakers and pastrycooks, and fixes wages as follow :—For bakers : Foreman in charge three men or over, £4 5s per week; single-handed foreman, £4 per week; smallgoods foreman, £4 per week; ovens men, £4 per week; smallgoods operatives, £3 10s per week; class “A” operatives, £3 10s per week; class “B” operatives, £3 per week; short jobbers, 2s per hour; long jobbers, Is 9d per hour. Pastrycooks ; Forehands, meaning pastrycooks who are in charge of bakehouse, and have supervision of four or more pastrycooks who are employed therein, £4 per week; forehands, meaning pastrycooks who are in charge of bakehouse and have supervision of three or less pastrycooks who are employed therein, £3 15s per week; single hands/ £3 15s per week; other pastrycooks, £3 10s per week; jobbers, 12s per eight hours or less per day, and at the rate of Is 9d per hour for any additional time beyond eight hours.

Eugene Debs thus explains his reason for advocating political action:—“Politics, in its final analysis, is the meltingpot,. the crucible, in which the ultimate destiny of this civilisation is to be refined and determined. To teach my fellow workers this fact, to inspire them with a knowledge of their own power, and, finally, to exalt them with a divine faith in their own ability to accomplish their own emancipation through the economic and political action of their’own class, is my answer to the question ’as to ‘why 1 atm? in politics.’