COUNTRY WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 13

COUNTRY WORKERS

INTERESTS OF LABOURERS

Representatives of the Wellington Labourers' and Related Trades Union appointed in the Wairarapa, Manawatu, Wanganui, Taihape, and Feilding districts have been active recently in supervising awards and enrolling members. In the Manawatu and Wairarapa districts, some hundeds of pounds of wages that were underpaid to workers have been recovered, states Mr. P. M. Butler, secretary of the Wellington Labourers' Union.

Now that section 155 of the I.C. and A. Act has been abolished, men employed by county councils are numerously joining the union.

"Some of the conditions of wages and employment in the country are abominable," said Mr. Butler, and he produced a photograph of a cottage in which a county, roadman was forced to live, having the rent deducted from his wages. This was merely a shack, he said, with broken windows,' no conveniences, and no floor boards, and no firewood available. It consisted of one' room, with walls of corrugated iron, and a roof of the same material with large holes letting in the rain. This was provided by one of- the wealthiest counties in the Wellington district. Similar shacks were dotted over the district. These were matters that the union should take immediate steps to rectify.