BOOT TRADE, METHODS.

Evening Star, Issue 13090, 24 October 1908, Page 6

BOOT TRADE, METHODS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l desire to draw your attention to a form of boycotting that ts being carried on in Dunedin towards a section of the members of the Bootmakers’ Union. As you are no doubt aware, the boot manufacturers throughout the. Dominion have been' complaining bitterly about the shortage of female labor, and how hard it is to get apprentices. Well, if the methods adopted by the Dunedin manufacturers are a sample as to what is taking place in the Dominion, we consider it will be harder still to get female labor. At the present time the local Manufacturers’ Association have entered into an agreement to this effect: that a girl leaving her employment and looking for work at another factory shall not be taken on if her original employer requires her services. Thid means that a girl has to work in a factory that she does not like, or else leave the town. We contend that this is boycotting pure and simple, and also interfering with the liberty of the person. Three such cases have ajready come under our notice, where girls, dissatisfied with the conditions under which they were working (not a question of wages), left their employment and applied for situations at other factories. They were asked where they had been working last, gave the necessary information, and were told to wait a minute or two. While they were waiting their old employer was rung up and asked if he required their services, his answer being affirmative. The girls were informed that he was sorry he could not start them; that he wanted "girls badly, but would have to stand by the agreement. Now, what we cannot understand is how a presumably shrewd body of business men came to enter into an agreement that is likely to retard the expansion of their own business. The only conclusion that we can come to is that the shortage of female labor is not so acute as the employers make it out to be. In any case we intend writing over to the Commonwealth, informing the workers there of the conditions trovcrnini? employment at the boot trade in Dunedin I am, etc., P. Logan, _ , , Secretary Bootmakers’ Union. October 24.