AFRICAN LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 55, 6 March 1914, Page 7

AFRICAN LABOUR

ECONOMIC COMMISSIONS REPORT TRADE UNIONS SHOULD BE RECOGNISED SHORTER HOURS RECOM- - MENDED. > (By Telegraph.—PrcßS Association.— Copyright.) (Received^ March 6, 8.45 a.m.) CAPETOWN, sth March. The Economic Commission's lepoit finds that the co&t of living on the Rand is 40 piv centum higher than in America, and 80 per centum higher than in , Europe. Wages are 40 per centum higher than in America, and 225 per centum higher than ill Europe, but, as the miners labour under many, disadvantages, their wages are not unreasonable. Tlie competition between the na-tives-and Indians in skilled trades Was a negligible quantity. ■ The report discountenances the Government decreeing a standard wage ; voluntary agreements between employers and workers were more satisfactory. It was essential that the employers should recognise trade unions, and recommends the protection of non'unionists. The report states that tho white strikers caused considerable unrest among the natives. Shorter hours are recommended and higher pay for overtime. The federation of trade unions is described as_ a second line of defence against industrial war, and the Commission urges the employers not to refuse to meet the federation. The Commission is unable to conceive why the federation officials were refused recognition as the men's professional representatives, and considers tho demand that trade unions should forego political activities as outside the question of recognition, but any over-persuasion in recruiting for unions, involving violence or other illegal action, should be sternly repressed.