THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21320, 26 January 1933, Page 15

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

[By J.S.S.] Brief contributions on matters with reference to the Labour Movement are invited. PLASTERING TRADE DISPUTE. An important dispute involving the plastering trade was the subject of conciliation in Wellington last week. As in most cases the stumbling block preventing agreement was wages and hours of work. The existing award, which expires on May 11 next, provides a minimum rate of pay for all journeymen plasterers of 2s 4ld an hour. The workers asked for this rate to bo renewed, but the employers proposed a minimum net rate of Is 9id. After much argument the employers agreed to increase their offer to 2s. This was not acceptable to the workers’ representatives. They contended that 2s was the same as that received by the waterside workers, who had little kit to provide. The plasterer’s job was not more constant • than that of the waterside worker. Plasterers usually received a penny or more than the carpenters. They had been receiving i|d more because of lost time. Weekly hours of work arc given as forty-four in the present award, eight hours to be worked on five days of the week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and four hours on Saturday between 8 a.m. and noon. Against this the workers proposed a forty-hour week, consisting of not more than eight hours a day on five , working days, to be worked between 8 a.m. and noon and between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. The employers, on the other hand, asked for a forty-four-hour week, the work to he done between 7.30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on five days of the week and between 7.30 a.m. and non on Saturdays. Notwithstanding this, they said, an employer might mutually agree with his workers for the weeks work of forty-four hours to be worked between the hours of 7.30 a.in. and 5 p.m. on the first five working days of a week. The workers’ representatives, in the course of discussion with the employers’ assessors, took strong exception to the 7.30 a.m. start. The 8 a.m. start had been in existence for twenty-six years, and they saw no reason for a change. As with the question of wages no agreement was reached on the hours clause. The rates of overtime fixed by the present award are time and a-half for the first four hours and double time thereafter. Double time is paid also for work done on Sunday, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. The workers proposed that all overtime should be paid for at double rates, and that double rates should bo payable also for work done on Saturday, Sunday, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Monday, Labour Day, Anzac Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and between the hours of 12 noon and 1 p.m., or during the dinner period. The employers proposed that overtime should be paid for at the rate of time and a-quarter for the first four hours and lime and a-half thereafter. Any time worked before 7.30 a.m. or after 5 p.m., moreover, would be considered to bo overtime. For work done on Sundays, Now Year’s Day, Good Friday, and Christmas Day double time would bo paid; and for work done on Boxing Day, Easter Monday, and Labour Day time and a-half would be paid. The employers held fast to their overtime proposals. The only concessions they were willing to make, aside from tlie increased offer of 2s hourly rate of wages, were that (1) the distance mentioned in the suburban work clause shall bo changed from five miles to two

and a-half miles; (2) to wages being paid weekly; and (3) to the court s preference clause. A fresh hearing of the dispute will he hoard on Monday. • * * • STATE CENTRAL BANK. Labour organisations in New Zealand have for long advocated the institution of a State central bank. The opponents of this policy are of the opinion that hanking needs are quite sufficiently met by the existing institutions. The views of the well-known economist, Mr J. A. Hobson, on the subject are of interest. He says: “If the business world is to be kept as dangerous and as changeful as over the case against public control of credit is irrefutable. But may it not be a sound public policy to reduce these risks and regulate these changes? If full obligatory publication of accounts made the financial position of all firms common knowledge, if national and international stocktaking along the lines of the International Institute of Agriculture gave reliable information of the present and prospective supplies of leading articles of commerce, and, above all, if an international effort were made to stabilise exchanges and to regulate the supplies of currencj', might not these risks be confined within such narrow bounds as to make them manageable by national banks?” • • » • FREEZING DISPUTE. Three hundred members of the Canterbury Freezing Works and Related Trades Union, at a meeting last week, reaffirmed their determination to carry on the fight for better terms than at present offered by the employers. The meeting which, it is stated, was enthusiastic received reports from the North Island and the Otago-Southland works. The secretary of the union (Mr H. C. Jlevoll) said that the men were remaining firm despitp the fact that some of them had received as many as five final notices to return to work. “We liave had reports from experienced slaughtermen who by courtesy of the manage? have visited a shed wlxere a chain system of killing is in operation, and they are definite' in the opinion that the chain system canot be regarded as a permanent factor in preparing large quantities of stock for export,” added Mr Reyell. “ The chief drawback to the system is the increased use of the knife. Secondly, the carcasses have to pass through a larger number of hands than under the solo system, and thus the carcasses must become soiled. This, together with the increased use of the knife, must have a detrimental effect on the grading.” * * * * FARMERS SUPPORT SOCIALISATION OF INDUSTRY. The adhesion of the Ppited Fanners of Ontario, as a result of a decision by an overwhelming majority at the annual convention in Toronto, to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Party is expected to have an important effect upon political developments in Canada. It is interpreted as marking the advent of a third party of major importance, one that is, moreover, committed to a policy of complete Socialisation of industry. The third party was launched at Calgary last summer, when the Independent Labour Party merged with the' farmers of Alberta and Saskatchewan to form the Co-operative Cpmmopwealth Party. Since then organised Labour in Canada joined the movement, and also the farmers of Manitoba and -Quebec. Last month the Ontario farmers followed. The third party is led by Mr J. S. Woods worth, of Winnipeg, who has been a member of the House of Commons for ' teii years. The Alberta farmers already hold nine seats in the House of Commons. The founders of the movement hope to secure the affiliation of all provincial agrarian, Labour, and Socialist organisations and _ their success in enlisting the co-operation of the fanners’ organisations in the largest province has been a severe blow to the Liberal Party. • * • • CASE FOR WORKERS. Mr P. J. Kell 3% national secretary of th© Freezers’ Union, at a public meeting in Wellington last week, put forward the unionists’ case in the freezers’ dispute. He said that New Zealand to-day was largely dependent upon the earning powers of the workers. Iney had been told that a reduction in wages would mean more employment, but the, opposite had been the result. There had been a good deal of propaganda distributed regarding the wages earned by freezing workers, hut it had to be remeyibered that freezing was a seasonal The 6,500 members of the union paid into the unemployment fund £33,000 a year. The union was fighting to keep women out of the industry, and did not want it brought down to the level described by Upton Sinclair in his hook, ‘ The Jungle.’ , The amendments to the I.C. and A. Act, Mr Kelly said, had been brought down by people who wished to dictate their own terms to the workers of the dominion. The freezing workers were putting up the greatest fight in the history of the industry in New Zealand, ’and they were holding together steadfastly. During the war years the freezing companies had over-capitalised the industry, and had expected the workers to pay the dividends. They could not expect the present Government to do anything, as it always put the cart before the horse. The earnings of freezing workers had been misrepresented* for years. Token over the whole year, it was questionable if a slaughterman earned more than £5 a week. The freezing companies were endeavouring to Americanise the industry in the dominion, and if this were allowed the workers would be reduced to the standard of America and the Argentine. Mr A. M’Leocl, secretary of the Wellington Freezing Workers’ Union, also spoke. He declared that the amendments to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act had been responsible for the dispute. The workers had done their best to arrive at a settlement, hut the employers on four occasions had refused to refer the dispute to the Conciliation Council. A two days’ round table conference in October had been abortive, and another conference in November had been unsuccessful. In October the employers had posted amended rates in the sheds, and had simply pushed aside the representatives of the union. The workers, however, had refused to accept the rates offered.