LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 12

LABOUR NOTES

, (By " Unionist.") ' j THE SIX-DAY WEEK. It was eenorally expected that the granting of Ino six-day week to the workers in hotels in Wellington would open the way for the operation of the principle in other centres. The expectation is being fairly quickly realised. In Auckland the Court has awarded the whole day's holiday in the hotel trade, and now the Christchurch hotelkeepers have entered into a three-year agreement, granting the holiday in each week in the trade there as from the 11th May next. In Dunedin steps ar© being takon by Mi. Breen, organiser of the Hotelworkers' Union, to promote an award on the linea of that granted by the Court in Wellington. It is beyond doubt that within a month or two the six-day week will be in opera* tion in the Dunedin hotels. The Wellington Trades Council is still carrying on its agitation for the_ extension of the principle to the public service. Mr. L. M. A. Roarden, Secretary of the Council, has y ritten the several churc^ dignitaries, asking for their co-operation in the movement. The council has in view an influential deputation to the Ministry in furtherance of the promotion of the acceptance of the principle by the Government. Until the preliminaries are completed, the date of the deputation cannot be definitely stated. In reference to the ethics of the principle a supporter writes : — ''A law requiring one day of rest in seven, regardless of which day it is, for all workmen— absolutely demanding that one rest, .with no loopholes of 'necessity and charity—would result in two things. The industries necessarily continuous would add one-seventh to their working force, and let one-seventh of their force by rotation ret each day in the week. But 'it would cost more to employ a larger working force, and the industries not necessarily continuous would close down on Sundays. Thus the Sabbath would bo better protected than it is now ; thus men would" be protected from the necessity of working seven days a week in order to hold their jobs. A man who has one day of rest a week, whether of his own choice or by compulsion, is a better worker, a better citizen, and a better man than one who works every day, even if his rest day is not Sunday." TOM MANN AND AFRICA. When the deported South African strike leaders reached Britain there was much exoitement. All sorts of rash proposals were made. The most general remedy suggested was a Strike. Discussing the strike, Mr. Robert Blatchford, editor of the Socialist Clarion, emphasised the need for a remedy, and asked how things were to be remedied : — By a general strike? No. I saw with much regret tha.t when Tom Mann was starting on his wild-goose chase to South Africa some of his supporters talkad of a general one-day strike- in May, and a general and sustained fitrike in July. All thte wild talk about general strikes is to be deplored. After discussing the South African situation and the best means of adjusting matters, the London Labour Leader says : "Frankly, we think Mr. Tom Mann is the last man in the world who should go to South Africa at this juncture. Tho one outstanding lesson of the recent dispute is the need for solidarity on the political field, and to this Mr. Mann is entirely indifferent. / He may perform miracles of industrial organisation, he may get the workers to lay down their tools with a solidarity the world has never before 6een, but so long as General Botha is Prime Minister and the troops are at his disposal all such efforts are doomed to failure. The missionaries South Africa wants are men who will convince the workers of the need for solidarity on the industrial and political fields alike." LABOUR CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA CONDEMNED, The Commission appointed by the South African Government t6 enquire into hours of labour, wages, cost of living, and economic conditions generally in the Union, in their report to the Government, recommend: — Periodical enquiries into the cost of living in different parts of the Union. Establishment of a non-political Advisory Council to deal with native question®. Appointment of an Industrial Commission to administer legislation relating to trade unions and industrial disputes, *.nd to deal with the problem of low wages. Provision of Conciliation Boards. Arrangements for the voluntary tegistration of trade unions. Other recommendations aro a Factory Act, the comprehensive regulation of shop hours, the legislative enactment of one day's rest in seven, periodical industrial reports, and the centralisation of the administration of all industrial and mining legislation. The Commission regard hours of labour as excessive in not a few cases, and recommendations are made involving shorter hours and a feigner fate of pay for weetime, which, however, the Commission disoourage. Cost of living on the Witw&tersrand, it is pointed out, id 40 per cent, higher than in America, and 80 per cent, higher than in any European country. On tho other hand, wages are 40 per cent, higher than in America, and 225 per cent, highei than in any European country. THE SYMPATHETIC STRIKE. An interesting report on the sympathetic strike was recently issued by Sir George Askwith, Chief Industrial Commissioner of Great Britain, when examining into the cause* of the Dublin trouble. The report defines the "sympathetic strike" as "a lefusal on the part of men who may hive no complaint against their own conditions of employment to continue work because in the ordinary course of their work they come in contact with goods in some way connected with firms whose employees have been locked out or are on strike." In actual practice the ramifications of this method of industrial warfare have been shown to involve loss and suffering to large numbers of both employers and workpeople, who not only have no voice in the original dispute, but have no means of influencing those concerned in tho original oause of difference. COMMUNITY COULD NOT KXIST. "Even collective agreements signed on behalf of employers' and men's organisations, a provision of whioh was that no stoppage of -work should take place without discussion and duo notice," states the report, "were entirely disregarded under the influence of this ever-widening method of conducting disputes. The distinction between strike and lockout became obscure, attacks on one side being met with reprisals on the other side in such rapid succession as completely to confuse the real issues. No community could exist if resort to the 'sympathetic' strike became the general policy of trade unionism, a« owing to the interdependence of different branohes of industry, disputes affecting even a single individual would spread indefinitely. If this should be the policy of trade unionism, it is easy to understand that it does not commend itself to the employers, but in our experience of the better organised employers and workmen the sympathetic strike or the sympathetic lockout is not a method which is recognised as a reasonable way of dealing with dieoutea." MUTUAL INTEREST. Discussing the position of both sides in regard to the sympathetic strike, the report states:— "lt cannot be expected that employers, many of whom have no grievances whatever with their employees, can continue their business if they are to be subjected, no matter what conciliatory steps .they may themselves tako to prevent it, to constant , interruptions through the effects of the sympathetic and sudden strike. All the great industries of every civilised country have long recognised that trade and manufacture can be conducted only by the practical acceptance on the part of both employer! and eflHyloyed of the fact that there is a mutual interest and that such interest can be adjusted satisfactorily only by friendly discussion." Perth (W.A.) Trades Hall Council is going to spend £6000 in/ enlargements to the building, including a hall 16ft by 51ft, and a supper room to seat 500 ffite«t». A billitud room »ad library will fipp, (?• e)f«fit*d,