THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19290, 1 July 1926, Page 2

THE LABOR MOVEMENT

[By Veteran.]

Biief contributions on milters with reference W the Labor Movement are invited. BOOTMAKERS’ JUBILEE. Or June 23 there was a large gathering of operative bootmakers and their friends at the Savoy to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the union in Dunedin, which, .1 believe, was the first bootmakers’ union organised in New Zealand. Attempts were made to form a union in 1874, but'it was not till the early part of 1876 that the present union was properly started. One of the original members of the union, Mr G. 0. Crowthcr, is now president, and presided at the jubilee meeting. Since the very first meeting lie has always taken a keen interest in the business of the union, but, -being of a retiring disposition, did not seek the president’s chair until 1917, and, 1 believe, is now occupying that position for the third time. It is men like Mr Crowther who have made the Labor movement what it is to-day in New Zealand. The journeymen bootmaker!, have always been in the forefront of the movement. It was Mr W. Marshall, one of the early presidents of the bootmakers, that first advocated the setting up of a workers’ political committee in Dunedin, and that was an organisation that did more for the workers in the political field than any similar organisation. Mr David Pinkerton, who was president of the Bootmakers’ Union in 1890, was the first working man to he elected to Parliament in Dunedin, and ‘ho topped the poll with a larger vote than had ever neon recorded in New Zealand. That was when the Ballance-Soddou Party first came into power in 1890. _ Mr Crowther, in writing his early recollections, says: “ T may mention that throughout all the bootmakers’ strikes (of which there have been about fifty in Dunedin) the workers never once struck for a rise in wages. We consistently struck against reductions.” The bootmakers always contributed freely to the assistance of other unions which wore in trouble. 1 remember that they voted altogether £3OO towards the maritime strike in 1890. besides large amounts to other unions. Taking all their work into consideration. the operative bootmakers have a record to he proud of. In the record distributed at the jubilee meeting it is stated that the, bootmakers’ was the first award made by the Arbitration Court. This is hardly correct; it was actually the third award. The Denniston coal miners’ dispute was referred to the court by tho .Conciliation Council on May 30, 189(3, and tho court made tho award on September 23, 1896. Tho bootmakers’ dispute was referred to the court by the Conciliation Council on July 29, 1896, and the Arbitration Court made the award on Decomber 3, 1896. So it is clear that tho coal miners were over two months ahead of the bootmakers in getting an award of the Arbitration Court. Tho Inangnhua gold miners got an award on September 23, 1896, the same day as the Dcnniston coal miners got tho very first award given by the court. # ■* * * UNIONISM IN TURKEY. In spite of tho fact that Turkey is very backward in industrial altairs, and that constant shillings of tae population make it very difficult to got a working-class movement on a sure footing, the trade union movement is gradually gaining a foothold in Turkey. The early beginning of tho movement can be traced back to 191 U. In that year a Socialist Party was foimcd in Constantinople, and it was not long before a number of trade unions grew up around this. These unions consisted chiefly of Crook, Turkish, Armenian, and Jewish workers, and had their headquarters in Galata, tho European part of tho town. Once these first unions were really on their feet, further unions were formed, and later on an independent Socialist Party was established, and finally a General Turkish Labor Federation. Tho workers with which the trade unions arc chiefly concerned are:—ln Constantinople, the tobacco workers and dock workers; in Smyrna, workers on tho fig plantations; isnd in Zuhgaldak, tho miners. » * * ■» SLAVERY IN BRITAIN. Slavery is supposed to have been abolished long ago, yet the following facts from tho report of H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories shows that it still lives. In a mantle and dressmaking establishment women wore kept at work from 9 a.m. until midnight on six successive days, and then wore'given work to take home to do on Sunday. After a fortnight of tins incessant intensive toil they had accumulated stocks larger than were needed, and so they wore dismissed. At another establishment women and young girls of fourteen years of age were employed from 6 o’clock in tho morning until half-past 11 at night, and they, too, had to work on Sunday as ■well. A number of women in a pork pie factory were niado to work from 8 o’clock in the morning until after midnight, and then to start again at 8 o’clock in the morning. Again, it was found that in a. bleach works four women and a girl were kept at work continuously for thirty-six hours without a stop. When the fussy old dames of tho Primrose Leagues sing “ Britons never shall ho slaves,” they evidently do not intend the injunction to apply to women workers. » # » * FLOUR-MILL EMPLOYE US. A new log of wages and conditions was served last week on the jlourmillers' in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia by the Federated Millers and Mill Employees’ Association of Australia. Tim claim seeks rates ranging from £5 15s per week of forty-four hours for all employees whose duties are not specified to £6 11s 6d for shift millers .or roller men, and £8 2s 6d for foremen millers. Tho rates for youths and j improvers range from £3 Is fid for the | first year to £4 4s 6d for the fifth year, ( and tho rate claimed for youths employed in trucking and wheat shooting is £5 15s pel 1 week. | In addition to wages at equivalent 'rates to those claimed in specified clauses, it is claimed that £1 a day extra should be paid to casual employees. A forty-hour week, in five eight-hour shifts, is claimed for afternoon and night shifts. Travelling time, overtime, holidays, and preference aro also requested. * % * # SIX-HOUR DAY. At the annual meeting of delegates appointed by various unions to form a committee for carrying out the twentyseventh Labor Day demonstration .in Lithgow, officers were elected and the date of the demonstration altered from the second Monday in October to tho first Monday in November. Mr Rossi moved that the committee in future should be known ns the Lithgow Six-hour and Labor Day Committee. Big advances, industrially and otherwise, had been made, he said, during the past twenty-seven years, and he considered it was a fallacy for unionists of the district to be marching behind the eight-hour banner. They would get nothing without agitation, and, while they might not enjoy tho desired concession themselves, their children probably would. Mr Luchetti seconded the motion, which was supported by Mr Cunningham and unanimously carried.

TRADE UNION FUNDS. In view of occasional trouble in this part of the world in connection with trade union accounts —the Melbourne Seamen’s Union funds being a case in point at the moment—members of such bodies will no doubt be interested in the censure recently passed by tho Tower Bridge (London) magistrate upon tho officials of the National Council of General and Municipal Workers when sentencing George Henry Dawes, branch secretary, to three months m the second division for stealing J-s from the union’s funds. Falsification of accounts was alleged, the total involved being £810... ' John Ravenhill Burnett, organiser, said embezzlement had average £46 a quarter since September, 1921. When Burnett and another organiser, Chas. Edward Knight, agreed that Dawes had taken full responsibility for the deficiency the magistrate remarked: “1 suppose vou felt relieved?” “Why accounts should have been left not added up for four years 1 cannot conceive (’’said the magistrate. “ 1 look upon that as a wicker} and improper encouragement of dishonesty, a help to a course of fraud which should have been stopped, at the beginning by tho officials.”—-' Australian Worker.’