LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 40, 17 February 1915, Page 11

LABOUR NOTES

(By "Optimist.") There is a good deal of unemployment prevalent, and ifc is anticipated that before the winter has set in the ranks will be swelled. The Dominion has so far suffered very little from unemployment as compared with the Commonwealth, and it is to be hoped that those with the wherewithal to spend will keep it cuculating for the benefit of their fellowcolonists. With a decided rise in the price of the Dominion's staple products and the successful flotation of the New South Wales loau, money should be forthcoming to keep workers going. ARBITRATION COURT. With the distinct advances in prices those interested are beginning to' ask when the Arbitration and Conciliation Courts will be prepared to review awards and grant increases. Practically the only New Zealand, industry that has suffered as a result of the war is the j hemp industry, and there is still sufficient margin in milling, if the miller is not rack-rented to pay award wages, and. still leave a lair profit. As in New Zealand the increased cost of living is causing increased anxiety, so it is in the Commonwealth. Labour newspapers there are urging drastic measures to be taken to overcome the difficulty. SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY. Strong support is still being accorded to the Saturday half-holiday movement in Wellington, and signatures are being readily obtained. Much enthusiasm is being shown by the supporters of the movement and a thorough check is being taken by comparing signatures with the rolls. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S SHIP- * BUILDING. The Federal Government, in pursuance of its policy of preference to unionists, has taken out of the hands of the Victorian State Government the repairs and fitting out of all vessels in Commonwealth service. Although the Fisher Government has not yet started ite State-owned steamship' line, ifc has chartered several of its "C " vessels, taken as prizes, to shipping firms trading to the United Kingdom. They are now advertised as taking in cargo. MEAT WORKERS' ACTION. The members of the Meat Employees' Union in N.S.W. have decided by an overwhelming majority to join the A.W.U. THE AFTERNOON SHIFT. ? The miners employed at six Newcastle mines — Pelawmadn, Hebburn, East Grett, Whitburn, Stanford, and Merthyr — have decided not to accept the proposal made by the colliery proprietors for the calling off of the strike against the afternoon shift on, the payment of increased rates for coal hewn during this shift. There is to be another conference with the proprietors, and at this the representatives of the men will put forward other proposals for a settlement of the trouble. The men are determined to have the afternoon shift abolished. AUSTRALIAN-MADE RAILS. The first tender of the Broken Hill Proprietary for steel rails manufactured at its Newcastle works has been accepted by the N.S.W. Government. This particular contract is for 2500 tons at £8 7s 6d per ton delivered at Port Pirie. Twelve hundred to 1500 men will be employed at the Newcastle works: and 350,000 tons of coal will be used per annum. In addition a large quantity of men will be employed getting iron ore. As the iron and steel industry is the forerunner, with a cheap coal supply, of the shipping industry, events will be watched, with interest. The Australian Railworker6 and General Labourers' Association, now in ite sixth year, has a memberehip of 17,000. UNIONISTS AND THE WAR. It has often been used as an argument against trades unionists that they are unpatriotic. To show the fallacy of this, Mr. Robert Smillie, President of the Miners' Federation, in speaking before the House of Commons Select Committee, stated that 109,210 members of his union had joined the forces at Is 2d per day. These men receive 40s per we?k, a free house and coal, and they have given all this up to serve dieir country. The Railwaymen's Union added 45,000, the Shop Assistants 8000. The grand total from all unions is not less than 225,470. As unionists are still enrolling in thousands, it is not too much to say that at least a quarter of Kitchener's new army will be composed of trades unionists. SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers recently received a rise of 3s per week in the London district, and an advance of 7£ per cent, in piece work. The Woolwich Arsenal men participated. THE MILLION MARK. At last one of the ideals of the General Federation of Trades Unions of Great Britain has been reached, and its affiliated membership has passed the million. The total membership is now 1,006,909. , COST OF A STRIKE. What it may cost to deal with * strike in England is revealed by the accounts of the city of Leeds. During the municipal strike there last year the maintenance of 600 special police absorbed £22,000. The police seem to have been well cared for, for 40 casks of beer, 25,700 bottles of mineral water, 500 pints of beer, nearly 8001b of tobacco, 1100 cigars, and 13,4751b of beef and mutton were consumed. AFFRONTEP MINERS. The British Miners' Federation, which had been for ten weeks subscribing £10,000 a week to the Prince of 'Wales Relief Fund, had the mortification of seeing its members refuse assistance because they were not- "destitute." RISE OF SEAMEN'S WAGES. It is reported that North of England • shipowners have agreed to pay their sailors £6 a month, an unprecedented sum in the case of tramp steamers. CONTINENTAL NEWS. Writing to the Transport Headquarters, the following communication is sent from Austria : Our organisation (railwaymen) may have lost 12,000 members up to the present. I believe that we will be able to come through the whole calamity fairly well. After the war is over the I.T.P. must be organised much stronger. As long as capitalism uses its power and organises internationally, its shadow, the proletariat, will have to follow suit internationally. We hope that conditions may soon improve, and that we may then be able to regain what has been lost, and to bring new battalions into line for the struggle for our great cause. "The Second War Statistics of the German Trades Unions" are only up to October, whereas the business dealt with in the International Headquarters letter is dated as late as sth December. Early in September, a few weeks only after the outbreak of war, the German Central Unions prepared statistics on the number of members who had joined the army and on the number of unemployed. These first statistics have since been followed by others, prepared on the 31st of October, that is to say, after three months had elapsed. Out of 2,301,829 members covered by the statistics, 661,005, or 31.3 per cent, were in the army, as against 27.7 per cent, in September. About two-thirds of their number are married, leaving wife and children behind when they left for the front.