UNION EXPENSES.

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 23, 26 January 1918, Page 11

UNION EXPENSES.

Commenting upon an estimate, of the cost of unionism in Australia, the Hon. J. T., Paul writes in the Otagq Daily Times: ". . It is time unionists in Australia and New Zealand gave some consideration to tho cost of running the business side of the' Labour movement. Undoubtedly money is wasted. Some unions have- permanent secretaries, and if a comparison be mado of the widely differing membership of such unions and the consequent difference in the effort necessary to fill the positions, then one must inovitably arrive at the conclusion -;that some monoy is wasted. And with a limited exchequer, .and an almost unlimited field for effort, such waste is unpardonable. If n businessman or any competent, organ. Utr had contvol of'tho work on tho busk ness sidh of the Labour movement, h»

would centralise flic services, ho would give better service, because the work would be done with proper office equipment by trained workers, and he would savo a considerable sum for expenditure in other fields of activity in the Labour movement. At the present moment there are. a few unions which fulfil no function in the Labour movement. They aro mere dues-collecting machines." The difficulties attendant upon the reorganisation of union business, however, are manifold, as witness the complications which, according to reports, arose when Dunedin tried to set its house in order.