THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19521, 31 March 1927, Page 3

THE LABOR MOVEMENT

: « —. [By VrnjEAN.]

Brief contributions on matters with fvfercnc* to the Labor Movement are invited. LABOR CONFERENCES. For many years Easter Week has' been the time most favored for the holding of conferences in connection with the Labor movement. This yeai it scorns that the number of these conferences is going to bo increased, and they are likely to get somewhat mixed. The Alliance of Labor is calling a conference on April 11, which is one week before the Trades and Labor Councils' Conference. Then on April 15 Good Friday) the first conference of Lahoi women is to be held in Napier ana con cinue until the business is concluded On Easter Monday, April IS, the an nuni conference of the New Zealand labor Party will commence, the ordei paper for which covers several pages ol printed matter. • The Trades and Labor Councils’ Conference, f believe, starts the same day in Wellington. On Easter Monday the biennial conference of the Now Zealand Rain tors and Decorators’ Association commences in the Trades Hall, Dunedin, at which there will bo somewhere about twenty delegates present from all parts of the dominion In the circular calling the Alliance of , Labor Conference appears: “ Enclosed j please find copy of the unity basis agreed upon between the Trades and Labor Councils' Federation and the New Zealand Alliance of Labor, It may lie as well for your union to discuss this matter, ns probably it may bo discussed by tlm conference.’’ | As I pointed cut in this column on I March 17, it is probable this matter j will also be discussed at the Trades , Councils’ Conference and some plain I speaking indulged in in regard to this j so-calkd agreement. « * * * AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY. There is a good deal of discussion going on at present as to the,(lnto on which the annual conference of the A.L.P. should ho held. For the past twenty years it has been hold at various dates, ranging from January to Juno. Five times in the twenty years the-conference has been held at Easter, and some of the branches with it permanently fixed for Easter Week, but it is not to ho at Easter tin's year, as the following extract from the ‘ Australian Worker ’ will show': —“ Another import aut reason for the holding of conference in Juno this year is that the Federal Conference will take place in May, when tho question of securing uniformity in the party’s rides throughout the State will be considered. It will be seen from the foregoing that by holding the conference in Juno the best interests of the great Labor move ment will be served. Members can rest assured that the annual conference will open on Juno 4 next.” *■* *■ * * AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL WORKERS.

The Farmers’ and Sheep Owners’ Associations have been approaching the Minister of Labor with a request that the Arbitration Act bo repealed, and naturally the Minister asks what they would put in its place. The Minister said ho intended to propose some amendments to the Act nett session. The Farmers’ Unions mid® the sheep owners say they are being ruined by the Arbitration Act increasing wages. The same cry has been raised in Australia. Mr W F. Ahern, dealing with this . question in the ‘ Australian Worker’ of March 10, alleges that the sheep owners have had the best of ;h all along. Ho says: "in 1917 the Federal Arbitration Court fixed the rate for general shearing at 30s; adult shed hands wore given 60s per week with keep; cooks, Cs per'man per week; and adult station bauds, 63s per week with keep. Compared with the rotes in the, previous award tiro 1917 rates showed the following increases; -General shearing, Cs, or 2d per cent.; Adult shed hands, 22s 6d, or 40 per cent.; cooks, 2s, or 50 per cent. In the case of station hands it was tho first award ihey received from tho .Federal Arbitration Court. Tho position at this stage, was that,, while rue rale for general shearing increased by 2d per cent, and the rates for shed hands (admiitedly underpaid by tire 1911 award) increased by 00 per .cent., the increase in tho value of wool per hale-from £l2 19s 2d in 1913-14 to £25 18s 8d in 1913-17—was exactly JOO per cent.” Hero it should be noted that the rate for general shearing was increased only 25 per cent, between 1907 and 1917, while between the two dates-tire cost of living showed an increase of 35 per pent. _ Tho shearers had been steadily losing ground all along the line,_ because of tho decreasing purchasing_ power of their wages. They were still below the cost of living mark when the 1917 award was declared. As to the effect tho increase in rates had on tho cost of wool production, it will be remembered that, when the last Queensland State pastoral award was declared, tho increases granted were; Shearers, 5s per 100; shed hands, 12s 6d per week: station hands, 10s per week; and cooks, Is per man per week. When delivering the State award Mr Justice M'Cawley said: “The total sum added to tho cost of wool-raising by these increases will, so far as one can judge from the imperfect statistics available, bo less than Id per lb.” From this it can' bo assumed that the increases granted in tho 1917 award added certainly not more than 2d per lb to the cost of woo! production. Yet tho value of the wool clip in tho hale in 1917 was double what it was when tho previous award for pastoral workers was made. It is now claimed by the graziers that the present condition of tho pastoral industry warrants a reduction ill the rates paid to pastoral workers. It is alleged that tho industry has suffered many hardships during tho last couple ot years, that wool prices are falling, and that the time has come for a reduction in wages. It is necessary, then, to analyse tho position as it stands to-day, compared with the position in the pre-war year. So far as the rates paid to pastoral workers are concerned, tho position briefly is as follows;

If, according to Queensland Ciiief Justice M'Cawley, the various increases granted to pastoral workers in Queensland in 1924 added less than Id per lb to the cost of wool-raising in that State, then these increases, worked out on the same basis, represented an increase over the fifteenyear period of somewhere around 3d per lb in the cost of wool-raising. A comparison between the rates paid under the last Federal award with those paid in Queensland under the State award is conclusive proof that the present Federal award rates are not causing the wool kings any serious anxiety. The rates compare as follow:

In declaring the Queensland State award, Chief Justice M'Cawley made this important statement: —“It cannot be suggested that with wool at__or about its present value the pastoraiist cannot in a reasonably good season afford the increased wage. . . . Wool raising is for the time being not only a prosperous industry, but an exceptionally prosperous one. Mr Oldham (United Graziers’ Association) laid stress upon the fluctuations of the industry, and put forward every nossible argument to induce the court to regard the industry os one of no more than average prosperity. Hut the facts against nim were too strong.” What Judge M'Cawley said in 1924 applies with equal force to-day as regards the pastoral industry as a whole. As in 1924, the industry is now passing through an era of unprecedented prosperity, and the squatters, far Irom seeking to secure a reduction in the wage rates, could well afford to pay substantial increases to the workers engaged in that industry. » * * * THE OUTLOOK FOR THE WORKERS. The Liverpool ‘ Weekly Post,’ in a leading article on February 5, 1927, says:— “ Mr W. L. Hichens ifi again urging that there should bo an industrial truce for five years, during which time both sides should submit any dispute to arbitration. As chairman of Cammed Laird’s he is in a position to gauge the ruin that is caused by stoppage, and he estimates that the cost of such stoppages during the past year was between £200,000,000 and. £300,000,000. The workers are beginning to realise that arbitration is the only sane method of dealing with disputes, and that they are the greatest sufferers from strikes and lockouts. The employers also desire arbitration, and. though there may be. differences of opinion as regards-the-five years' truce, peace in industry is essential

Ito any increase in prosperity. This i peace cannot be secured by attacks on j the trade unions, and we are glad to ; note_ that the Government has no inj tention of being influenced by esbrem(ists. Any trade union legislation which is introduced during the forthcoming session will be on modest lines. There may bo a separation of benefit from political funds, though tins is l already done by some trade unions, land an attempt to protect by legislation the interests of the rank and file. ! The country is settling down to work, | and Mr Baldwin has no desire to in--1 dulgo in provocative legislation.” I i ; WHAT IS LABOR? i Said Abraham Lincoln; “Labor is 1 prior to Capital, and deserves much higher consideration. Who is and what is Labor? You are Labor, if you work for a living. You till tlio soil, you mine the coal, you write the books, and you spin tho‘ yarn. You invent cunning machines, you serve and sell across counters, and you build tho dwellings of men all the world over. In America you are tho great majority. All that serves Labor serves the nation. All that harms Labor is treason to America. No line can be drawn between these two. If any man tells you he loves America yet hates Labor, be is a liar. If any man tells you' be trusts America yet lie fears Labor, he is a fool. There is no America without Labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.”

Class of worker.

£ 3 ? rH “ *-* O • rH fj CO Ci U ro5 k w o S "i *3

Shearers (general) per 100 24/ 40/ 66]% Shed hands (adult) with keep, per week 37/6 79/8 1122% Station hands (adult) with keep, per week 55/ 54/8 56 % Cooks, per man/ per week ‘ 4/ 8/ 100 %

Queensland Federal State Class of worker. Award, Award. Shearers (general rate) per 100 45/ 40/ Shed hands (adult) with keep, per week 102/6 79/8 Shed hands (18 to 21) with keep, per week ' 68/9 . 49/9 Shed hands (under 18) with keep, per weeK 61/3 43/3 Station hands \adult'i with keep, per week 70/ ,M/8 Cooks/ : per man, per week ... ... 10/0 8/