MORE MILLIONS FOR BREAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 12

MORE MILLIONS FOR BREAD

Further • increases in" the' price__ e* bread were foreshadowed by, Mr. ,&• J. Keen, in his presidential address :to the conference of the Amalgamated Union of Operative Bakers, Confectioners, and Allied Workers at C6nway Hall, London. Stating that, the baking trade itself could not be 1 held-respon-sible, he added: - "When it is realised that an increase of only one penny per 41b loaf—the rise in the present month —means an additional £9,000,000. per year to the bread bill, one realises the price now being paid for • the-■ Stupid artificial restrictions'.of the-past; ,= So far as one can see at the 'moment the rise in wheat prices continues, and the consumer will inevitably, foot;the bill." Mr. Alfred Wall, secretary of the London Trades Council, said that many bakers worked eighty hours, a week for 455, and added: "It is a tragic irony that the men who bake the-coun-try's bread should be compelled to work for a wage so inadequate-that they can purchase for themselves and families hardly a sufficiency of the products of their own hands.'.' A resolution was carried calling upon the Government to enforce a 40rhour week with a limitation of overtime. Mr. Banfield, stressing" the importance of organising the women employed in the industry, said that during the: last five years there had been an increase of at least 10,000 women workers in bakers-' and' confectioners' ■ shops. Men sat at home unable to get'work because their wives or : daughters werflr doing the jobs which they should .,