THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21716, 10 May 1934, Page 2

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

.[By J.S.S.] Brief conlribuliona on mailers with reference to the Labour Movement are invited. COLD Ml NEKS' STRIKE. Two West Coast M.R.s (Messrs P. C. Webb and J- O’Brien) are at present in Australia soliciting financial support for the inangalma gold miners wlio have been on strike lor the past three months. About 1.200 strikers and their dependants are involved m the dispute. Messrs Webb and O’Brien will visit the principal industrial centres, including Queensland and Western Australia. - It is interesting to note that in 1919 the Inangalma Miners’ Union sent £1,200 for the relief of the Broken Hill strikers, and in 1929 and 1930 £650 to the northern coalfields, New South Wales, locked-out miners. During the British jnjners’ strike of 1927 they remitted £7BO lor their assistance. The contention of the Jnangahua Miners’ Union is that they are entitled to the restoration of the 10 per cent, reduction imposed in 1981. when gold was only £3 19s 8d per ounce. The price of West Coast gold in New Zealand is at present approximately £7 10s, owing chiefly to the 25 per cent, exchange rate. The companies concerned—Alexander and Blackwater—ard stated to be averse to signing an agreement which would bo operative for twelve months, contending that the price of gold may drop at any time. The union viewpoint is that the miners should be on the maximum wage, as the price of gold is now nearly 100 per cent, higher than in 1931, and the profits of the Blackwater mine, in particular, have been greatly increased. 1 It is pointed out that the -Inangalma mines can be regarded as among the unhealthiest in the world, , the average life of the miner working underground there being twenty years. From the year 1918, when the water-liner drills were introduced, up till last year, the number of deaths from miners’ phthisis was 410, omitting sufferers who left New Zealand and whose demise has not been recorded in the dominion. At the end of 1933 there wore 743 miners’ phthisis pensioners. The disease is duo to the lungs becoming coated witii line particles of dust, thus seriously impeding the breathing. The. disease, once contratced, is progressive, and death generally ensues within live years. * * * » NEW ZEALAND MINERS’ WAGE AGREEMENT. The West Coast coal mine leaders arc at present consulting with North Island mine owners regarding a new wages agreement. The owners’ proposals have already been the subject of much negotiation. The miners are pressing for a return of the 10 per cent. out. They also desire the “ wettinie ” clause altered. At present wages men in wet places who used to work a six-hour shift and wore paid for eight hours have to work eight hours and are paid for nine and a-half hours, it was unanimously resolved at branch mootings held on the West Coast to ask the National Council to consider the advisability of a national stoppage m order to obtain a satisfactory agreement. The National Council has deferred action meanwhile. * * * * AUSTRALIAN WAGE CUTS ‘•RESTORED.” By a majority judgment the Full Court of the Federal Arbitration Court has restored to all unions, with a few specified exceptions, the 10 per cent, emergency wage cut of 8s a week imposed as part of the Premiers’ Plan in 1931. In N.S.W. the restoration will amount to only' one penny a week, the basic wage being varied from £3 6s lid a week to include the 10 per cent, restoration at £3 7s a week. The effect of the judgment is that the emergency wage cuts imposed under the Premiers’ plan have bfen made permanent and 10 per cent, of the 1931 wages has completely vanished. This declaration (states the Sydney ‘ Labour Daily ’) reduces the actual living standard 10 per cent, below that determined by Mr Justice Higgins at the inception of Commonwealth Arbitration in 1907. In the tables below are given (1) the wage operating in January, 1931, before the 10 per cent, reduction. (2) The judgment delivered yesterday, and (3) the recommendation of the Royal Commission in 1920 —the only inquiry ever held by the Commonwealth into the actual cost of living:— 1 2 3

In 19.10 the Federal wage for New South Wales was £4 15s 6d. Now it will be £3 7s, a reduction of £1 8s 6d for every employee. * * * * CLAIM FOR WAGES RESTORATION. At the annual meeting of the Wellington Storemen and Packers’ Union, held last week, it was resolved that the Government be approached through the organised industrial and political bodies with the view of obtaining by legislation fourteen days’ annual leave on full pay to all workers having served the same employer for upwards of twelve months. It was urged that the action of od companies in having cut their employees down to half a week’s annual leave could not be justified, and that greater leisure should be given to workers. The meeting considered that future prosperity could only be achieved by extending through wages and salaries a greater measure of purchasing power, and that whilst appreciating the good feeling of many employers who had given back the 10'per cent. cut., it was of the opinion that a national move to raise the national standard of living would have to be made. The following motions were also carried;— (a) That a system of registration of youths unemployed, with the view of knowing the exact number idle, be made annually by the State, and that this idle force shall be employed ami trained, on a planned production system, to produce and develop national resources for the maintenance and finally the absorption of the unemployed army, (b) That the wages and conditions of the unemployed shall be raised to a standard of decency equal to our resources, mental, and physical ability. Food, clothing, ami shelter should be secured to those poor unfortunates of the capitalistic system.” Mr M. Burke was elected president for the ensuing year, and Air J. Tucker secretary. ■ * * * won i;d une.mpuoy.m ext SURVEY. A review of ihe world position as it a (feels employment is contained in ‘ The

Ministry of Labour Gazette.’ The period covered is from 1929-33, and it is stated that after three years of severe depression there was a marked improvement in employment during last year. In many countries the peak of unemployment was reached during 1932, and the following tables give the Comparison between that year and last year:— Average No. of Unemployed Persons Registered at Employment Exchanges.

The following table includes other countries, and shows the percentages unemployed among workpeople insured against unemployment, or among members of trade, unions:

A comparison of the-figures for 1929 with those for 1933 revealed marked variations in different countries in the extent of the decline in unemployment between those two years. While the reduction in Great Britain was little more than 5 per cent., it was about II per cent, in Japan, 24 per cent, in Czechoslovakia, 27 per cent, in Germany, 29 per cent, in Italy and Canada, 34 per cent, in the United States, and 37 per cent, in Poland. * * NEW SOUTH WALES MILK SCHEME. With a view,to the establishment of a scheme to supply milk to children in Now South Wales Schools, the Milk Board is calculating costs and conferring with the Department of Education. The inquiries are the outcome of proposals submitted by the Health Society for the consideration of the State Government. These proposals were that all children in State schools should bo provided with half a pint of milk on each school day, and that the Milk Board arrange with the suppliers for distribution to the schools in bulk at a special price. The Society’s estimate was that 104,000 half-pints daily at Oil a gallon would cost £55,890 yearly, on the basis of forty-six weeks in the school year. The Minister of Health considers, however. that the cost would be nearer £IOO.OOO a year. * * * *' ALBERT'A FARMERS’ ECONOMIC IDEAS. At the annual conference of the United Farmers’ of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, the following resolution was passed:— Whereas, nothing is more evident than the need of #ur people to understand the social sciences; and whereas, if democracy is to continue to function, the meeting of this need becomes exceedingly urgent; and whereas, many thousands of adult persons in the farm movement in Alberta arc passing into their elder years without enjoying even tbp satisfaction of witnessing substantial social progress embodies institutions; and whereas, the time was never more suitable than at present for the introduction into the life of our young people of an early understanding of the nature of those social and economic forces by which their lives and those of us who are older are being shaped; and whereas, after twelve years of control of our. educational system by a Government in Alberta elected by the United Farmers, wc have made almost no progress in these aspects of education. Be it resolved, that wc urge the TJ.E.A. executive to strongly and insistently urge upon the Alberta Government that it take immediate action to introduce: (al By text books especially devoted to the purpose; and (b) more especially by _ suggestion throughout the entire curriculum, the idea of the advance of society towards a new form of social organisation in which the principle of struggle for private profit shall be displaced by the principles of eqnitv, justice, mutual aid, and social well-being. Be it further resolved that in order that all teachers trained in Alberta may be fully qualified to give instruction _ in social science, a course in this subject in the spirit of the foregoing resolution be included in the curriculum of all Alberta normal schools.

Jan., A' cw 1930 1931 Wage, Po.yal Com. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ H. d. Svdnev ... 4 8 0 3 7. 0 5 17 1 Rural, N.S.W. 3 4 0 Melbourne 4 3 0 3 4 0 5 16 6 Brisbane ;i 9 6 3 1 0 5 6 2 Adelaide 3 17 6 3 4 0 S 16 1 Perth 3 19 0 3 6 0 5 13 11 Hobart ... 4 2 6 3 7 0 5 16 11

Country. 1932. 1933. Grout Britain 2,813,000 2,588,000 Germany 5,580,000 4,733,000 Branco 308,000 307,000 Netherlands ... 271,000 323.000 Italy ] ,000,000 1.019,000 Austria ... 378,000 106,000 Switzerland 54,000 68,000 Czechoslovakia 554,000 738,000 Poland 250,000 250,000

3932. 1933. Great Britain ... ... 22.1 19.9 Belgium ... 19.0 16.7 Denmark ... ... ... 31.7 28,9 Norway ... 30.8 ■ 32.9 Sweden ... ... ... 22.4 23.2 Australia ... ... ... 29.0 25.1 Canada ... 22.0 22.3 United States ... ... 32.0 31.0