LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue LXXXVIII, 12 September 1914, Page 11

LABOUR NOTES

(By "Optimist.") THE FEDERATION OF LABOUR. - It is doubtful at present whether all the organisations that were represented at the last Unity Conference have joined the United Federation of Labour, no official notification having yet appeared as to whether the shearers, drivers, or seamen have affiliated. TKe object is to make the trades councils in the different centres district councils under the new constitution, but whether the unions attached to the trades councils j will enter the scheme is another matter. I The cooks and waiters have already declined to do so under present conditions. The United Labour Party, in Wellington will have candidates for Wellington, irrespective of the Social Democrats' nominees. The Auckland Bootmakers' Union recently considered the question of affiliation to the Federation and the Social Democratic Party. The union Executive Committee was favourable, but on a vote being taken it was lost by two. It was i decided, in view of the narrow majority j obtained, that a ballot of the union should be taken shortly upon the proposals. The Auckland general labourers will also take a ballot as to whether they will join the Federation. LABOUR. DAY CELEBRATIONS. Good progress has been made with the preparations for Labour Day celebration on 26th October, at Wellington. Practically every trades organisation will be represented in the procession, which will leave the Government Buildings at 10 -a.m. for Ne-wtown Park, where a sports programme will be gone through. LABOUR- UNITY. The Otago Labour Council and the Social Democratic Party are moving towards a more complete unification than has existed for years past. Both parties have approaclied the new situation in the best possible spirit, and a working agreement is almost certain. It is not expected that the details will create any insuperable difficulties. In the North Island the trend is also towards unity. In the field of organised Labour, as in all other fields, the great international crisis Eeems to have modified ami harmonised antagonisms. . The spirit of mutual toleration, which was wanting in the past, is the most potent factor in establishing real and lasting unity. That spirit is at present growing, and its exercise at more than one recent Labour gathering proves how easily harmony can be established where common-sense and toleration are displayed. WANGANUI UNIONISM. Wanganui is going ahead J in the Labour movement. It has now two paid secretaries there who devote their whole [ time to union work. The latest appointee is Mr. Ross, of the Wanganui branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and. Joiners. SLAUGHTER MEN WANTED. [ A cable has been received in Wellington stating that the Slaughter Men's Union in New South Wales -will welcome any slaughter men from New Zealand seeking employment, as there is work offering. The Labour Party has "won out" in the Commonwealth elections. There is an unusually large amount of unemployment, in the Commotrwealth caused by war and strikes. When it is remembered

that the bulk of the ore obtained from the Broken Hill mines goes to Germany for treatment, and shipment cannot be made there now, it will bo understood that a few thousand miners will be affected. The Newcastle trouble still exists. With the Brokeji Hill dispute the Labour Government will probably try and solve the difficulty by making arrangements to treat the oie in the Commonwealth, to the discomfiture of the Germans. With regard to the mining dispute, it should be remembered that the conditions the men Kie asking for have been granted by several mines, and the other niine-oivneis will probably now follow suit. With the .Right Hon. Andrew Fisher at tho head ot affairs Australia will make headway, and prove to all critics that Labour is" as loyal to the Empire as any other section of the community. GERMAN TRADES UNION CONGRESS From the 22nd to tho 27th Juno last, the ninth congress of the trades \inions of Germany was held in Munich, in which over 2g millions of workers were represented. A series of questions of tho greatest importance to trades unions were dealt with, and important decisions arrived at. The newly drawn-up set of regulations for joint action of tho tiades unions is undoubtedly tho most important matter of the moment. These regulations have been drawn up in view of tlie_ changes which have been brought about in tho economic development. The regulations fall into four sections — 1. The fundamental legulations for tho General Commission, the Executive Conferences, and tho Trade Union Conferences and their tasks. 2. The settlement of juricdictional disputes. po. Strike benefit. 4. Tho taska and authority of the Trades Union Council. These decisions make it possible for the German Trades Union Centre to adopt the methods of assessment as a means of providing tho necessary fund? in case of extraordinary struggles. Tho system of i collections, which provail in other counI tries in connection with every little strike, has been 'discouraged for many years in the German Trades Unions, and has been limited by Congress decisions to tho extent that collections can only be mado by the decision of a. conference of the executive of the union, but apart I from this, the decision has been entirely dispensed with. Tho principle is adhered to that evory trade union should conduct its financial policy in a healthy manner, and tako care that it is able to carry* on its own fights with its own fluids. Only in unforeseen exceptional circumstances is the whole of the movement to tako part, and then by means of extra contributions. In arriving at tho decision on the second section differences arose with the representatives of organisations of fuctory workers and municipal ' workers who regard tho trade ori granisation^ as the proper form of trade union, while the other unions regard the industrial organisation as the most favourable form of organisation under the present conditions. The congress took up a position with regard to those questions which at the present moment is of very great interest to the whole of tho workers, and of very great importance) for their conditions. The Congress demanded the extension of social political legislation, especially the protection of home workers and the development of public means of dealing with unemployment. It protested against tho legal decision of the chief authorities of the Workers' Insurance Department and the Imperial Insurance Office, and dealt with the attitude of the management authorities towards the Trades Union Co-operntive Insurance Societies. — From tho T'itornptional Ne^vs Letter. TROUBLE IN PALESTINE. Strikes and_ other economic stri iavo been taking place in Palestine. l,aterly vory serious agricultural workers' -trikes have taken place, in which tho emoloyeiß have acted just as thoy do in tho <o-called more civilised countries, and have ised hunger, Iho boycott, and organised otnke-bivakers in order to force the worke £ s back to their work. It is interesting that Ibo most backward Arabian workers nave taken part in this strike.