WORK AND WAGES

Evening Star, Issue 11891, 20 May 1903, Page 7

WORK AND WAGES

'Die Arbitration Court, Christchurch, yesterday considered the bakers' dispute, 'which was taken from the Conciliation Board. The union ask for forty-eight hours per week; £3 5s a week, with thirteen loaves, for foremen •, £2 15s, with thirteen loaves, for second hands; other men not less than £2 10s. with bread The hours and wages are the great points, in dispute. The taking of evidence was concluded before the Court adjourned. Mob rule, according to mail advices, governs at Outtrim, where' the miners went out on strike. No stranger arrives or can move through the town without being stopped and questioned as to his business. Police, in numbers never scon before, do constant sentry duty. All except actual passengers are rigorously excluded from the railway platforms, and respectable residents are compelled to have their homes garrisoned by police. Mr George Fields, in going to and returning from work, has to be accompanied by a police bodyguard, whilst others againsj; whom a demonstration had beei> made previously sent their families to Melbourne, and themselves went into the free laborers' quarters in the company's • stables. Other non-unionist workers, profiting by this example, have since made application to be allowed to share the same quarters, so that they may recommence work. / A New York correspondent of 'The Times' says, apropos of the building trade: During the last few years, which have seen an unprecedented activity in the buildin" .trade, workmen have not only shared in the general prosperity by having nearly all tlvi-/ demands satisfied, but have also so strengthened themselves as a bodv that rbioiuui the Bonn! Wi ilia Building* Trailon (ivp---\seniing 60.000 men), thev now control |i?h:-tii-ai!y :i l! skilled labor "in their line in and near New York. Vtvv few workmen acv,' receive less than 4doi a dav