THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21570, 16 November 1933, Page 7

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

[By J.S.S.]

Brief contribution! on matter! with referinca to the Labour Movement are invited. THEATRE EMPLOYEES. The New Zealand Theatrical Proprietors and Managers’ Industrial Union of Employers made an application in the'Conciliation Council in Wellington last week for a modification in the present award. There was a big disparity in the respective claims, no decision being reached. The unions are now considering an amended offer of tho employers. The weekly wages sought by the applicants were as follows (the counter-claims being set out in parentheses) :—First mechanist, £5 5s (touring £7 17s 6d, resident £6 2s Gd) ; second mechanist, £4 os (touring £7 2s Gel. resident £5 7s 6d) ; other mechanists, £4 4s (touring £6 12s Gd) ; Hyman, £4 4s (£6 12s Gd) ; first property man, £4 16s (touring £7 7s Gd, resident £5 12s Gd) ; second property man, £4 4s (touring £6 12s Gd, resident £4 17s Gd) ; first electrician, £4 16s (touring £7 7s) ; second electrician, £4 4s (touring £6 12s Gd) ; other electricians, £3 15s (touring £6 2s 6d); other lighting hands, £3 15s (£4 12s Gd); wardrobe master, £3 10s (touring £5 17s Gd, resident £4 12s Gd); wardrobe mistress, £3 (touring £5 7s 6d, resident £4 2s Gd) ; stage doorkeeper, £3 (£4 2s Gd) ; stage hands, all performances, £3 5s (£4 7s 6d). • • • • DISTRIBUTING WORK, Auckland watersiders who have worked thirty hours will not offer for labour at the calls during the remainder of the week, according to a system which has been inaugurated by the members of the union. The system is under the control of a special committee of the union, and is being carried out with the idea of obtaining a more even distribution of _ work among tho members. The special committee has the power to vary the maximum number of hours according to the amount of shipping in port, so that there will be no shortage of labour during the busy period. Tho system was inaugurated last Thursday, and men who were engaged on that day and who have completed thirty hours’ wox - k, were not to offer again until to-day. The present action by the men Is being taken without consulting tho shipowners’ representatives, and it is stated that it is not in keeping witli the agreement which the men have been working under since November, 1932. Provisions are made in the agreement for a disputes committee consisting of members of the Shipowners’ Federation and members of tho Waterside Workers’ Union to discuss the matter of any change in the system of engaging labour. Clause 49 in the agreement states that the National Disputes Committee shall have the power /to establish at any port or ports at such, times and on such conditions ns it thinks fit a registration or bureau scheme for the purpose of improving the existing methods of employment of waterside labour. For the purposes of any such scheme it is empowered to make such amendments to any provisions of the agreement relating to the engagement and/or transfer of labourers it thinks fit. DECLINE IN MONEY .CIRCULATION. In advocating 1 his views before the Prime Minister for a restoration of 1929 wage standards, Mr James Roberts, secretary of the Alliance of Labour, laid emphasis on tho decline in money circulation in New Zealand. “ The total income of New Zealand from ail sources in 1926 was estimated to bo not less than £136,000,000, and the total income in 1928 was stated to be not less than £140,000,000. The total income in 1932 is estimated to be £100,000,000. Until recently it was difficult to obtain any reliable information ns to what proportion of the national income was paid by way of wages and salaries. Reliable data has now, however, been obtained through the Unemployment Board, and the following figures are based on tho wages and salaries on which unemployment tax is paid. “ According to the * Abstract of Statistics ’ published in February, 1933. the total income for the year 1931-32 was approximately £100,000,000. Of this amount, £60,000,000 was paid by way of wages and salaries, and £40,000,000 was paid by way of dividends from investments and other sources. We have, therefore, a falling off in income or money available for circulation of £36,000,000 as compared with 1926, and £40,000,000 as compared with 1928. Assuming that wages arid salaries were in the same proportion to the national income in 192 G as in 1932, the loss in purchasing power of wages alone in 1931-32 as compared with 1926 was £20,000,000, or a loss in purchasing power when compared with 1928 of £24,000,000. This does not disclose the full decrease in purchasing power, for the income of the great majority of those who are not in receipt of wages or salaries is* seriously affected by loss of purchasing power on the part of the workers. There are no meansby which this additional loss in purchasing power can he ascertained, hut undoubtedly it would amount to some millions of pounds.” * • • * GENERAL LABOURERS’ AWARD. The schedule of the new award covering Poverty Bay builders, contractors, and general labourers and quarry workers specifies that in general the week’s work shall not exceed forty-four hours, and that the work done shall not exceed eight and a-half hours on five days of the week and four and a-half on Saturday. In tunnel work the hours shall not exceed eight per shift, with half an hour for crib time, and in wet places or foul air six hours shall constitute a day’s work. Minimum wages for tunnel men and timber men are set down at Is 10id an hour, for certified men using explosives in quarry work Is 9d, other quarry workers and general labourers Is 7 Jd, and asphalt and tar workers Is BJd, • • • • BRITISH UNIONS OPPOSE WAR. The Trades Union Congress, in its opposition to war, went a good deal

further, at Brighton, than it has done on previous occasions. With the lead given to it by the recent conference of the International Federation of Trade Unions, at Brussels, the congress seriously discussed tho question of industrial action as a means of preventing the threat of war by any country which is considered to be an aggressor after refusing to accept arbitration by the League of Nations. While there was obviously a strong feeling in the congress that the war menace must be faced with determination, there was some hesitation about committing the movement immediately to a policy of strike action, and in the end the congress adopted the suggestion of the President (Mr W. G. Walkden) that .the whole question should be referred to the new General Council to consider the calling of a special conference of affiliated unions before the end of this year. The subject was introduced by Mr W. Monslow (Locomotive Engineers and Firemen), who moved a composite resolution urging tho workers to boycott war. This was remitted to the General Council for consideration in conjunction with the war and disarmament report of the International Federation of Trade Unions. The resolution instructed tho General Council, in conjunction with the cooperative movement and the Labour Party, to organise among the workers an intensive campaign against war preparations, emphasising tho growing acuteness of the war danger. The appalling nature of modern methods of warfare and their results, and to work within the International Federation of Trade Unions for an uncompromising attitude against war preparations, a determined boycott of war if and when it should be declared, and an organised refusal to assist in any shape or form in measures calculated to help in the prosecution of war. “ The next war,” said Mr Monslow, “ must be averted by the corporate action of large bodies of public opinion. The god of war still remains enthroned in the world. At this very moment we find that in the capitals of Europe the date of the next war is being prepared. It is high time we called a halt to this diabolical movement towards war.” Mr George Hicks, M.P., seconding, said the world to-day was too small for the capitalists. They had encircled the world, and there was no chance for their expansion. That was one reason why there were serious possibilities of war. “ The preparations for war are no idle preparations,” he said. “ The countries engaged in them fully understand their significance. Hitlerism and Fascism are the factors to-day _we have to take into serious consideration, and they have the closest relations to war preparations.” Mr George Gibson, in a statement to the General Council, drew attention to a resolution of the International Federation of Trades Union Conference at Brussels, advocating the general strike as the ultimate weapon of the working class against war, pointing out that this means was advocated not when War had been declared, but at the specific moment when _ the aggressor country had been identified and determined. Mr Gibson said they could not successfully call a general strike after the mobilisation of troops for war had begun. Tho Chairman (Mr A.- G. Walkden) pointed out that the General Council had power under the orders to call a special congress to decide on industrial action in the event of the danger of an outbreak of war, and they could convene a special congress to deal with any contingency that might arise. They realised the growing danger and would not delay their action. In reply to a delegate, the Chairman further said tho General Council was prepared to call a special conference of unions before tho end of the year in view of the position of affairs in the world. The congress agreed to remit the Brussels resolution, together with the resolution moved by Mr Monslow, to the General Council for consideration and action. • « • • JAPANESE LABOUR. The challenge of tho cheap labour of Japan to the workers of the older countries was explained by Mr Samuel Courtauld at the meeting of his codirectors quite recently. ” The growth of the Japanese rayon industry,” he said, “ has been very rapid. In 1932 production was 68,000,0001 b, or 13 per cent, of the world’s output. British exports have in the same time declined by two-thirds. That is to say, in 1928 Great Britain exported eight times as much as Japan; in 1932 Japan exported over three times as much as Britain. In 1932 women workers in tho Japanese cotton and silk manufacturing industries were receiving wages, based on present rates of exchange, varying from 1 l-7d to 1 2-5 d per hour. Courtaulds in England are paying women workers about eight times as much as the corresponding Japanese women receive, while in the case of male workers Courtauld’s wage is ten times as high.” AWARD INTERPRETATION. Judgment of tho Court of Arbitration has been delivered by Air Justice Frazer on an appeal from a decision of the Disputes Committee made by the Wellington Tailors’ Industrial Union of Workers concerning points of interpretation in tho tailors’ award. The only matter in dispute was tho decision of tho Conciliation Commissioner in respect of haircloth in coats, but the court was also asked by tho parties to settle the principles governing tho interpretation of the piecework statement appended to the award. Tho obvious interpretation, states the judgment, is that a coat conforming to the general specification of a handtailored coat, set out in paragraph (a) of tho piecework statement, is to lie made for 31s Gd, the fixed price. Specified extras arc to be paid for at tho respective rates fixed in paragraph (a), and all other extras nro to be paid for at the time rate. Tho answer to tho question as to whether any particular item is or is not an extra is met by another question; la that item usually incorporated in a coat of that description? If it is, then it is not an extra; if it is not, then it is an extra. Tho answer to the specific question relating to haircloth is that if, by tho custom of the trade, a certain quantity of haircloth is usually inserted in a hand-tailored coat it is not to bo regarded as an extra. If haircloth is not usually _ inserted, or if extra haircloth is required in any order beyond what is customarily inserted, the haircloth, or, as tho case may be, the additional haircloth, is an extra.