INDUSTRIAL AFFAIRS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1932, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL AFFAIRS

SEAMEN’S WAGES. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, August 29. The shipowners are asking for a re duction of 20 per cent; of the seamen’s wages. Negotiations are now proceeding for a new arrangement. The pre sent one expires on Wednesday. SHEARERS’ AWARD. CHRISTCHURCH, August 29. The rates of pay for shearers and shed hands were considered by the. Conciliation Council to-day. No agreement was reached. A motion to refer the dispute to the Arbitration Court was defeated. The employers offered 15/- per hundred sheep for shearing, with a provision for a sliding scale, so that if wool reached 1927-28 values, the wage would be 30/-. The Union asked for 21/- per hundred 1 sheep. The Clerk of Awards will now be advised that no agreement has been reached, and the existing agreements will lapse after thirty days, unless a settlement for a Dominion agreement is reached at the sittings to be held at Blenheim and Dunedin. LANCASHIRE COTTON mILLS. [OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] , RUGBY, August 27. At Manchester, the negotiations in the cotton industry broke down last night. Th 6 trade unions thereupon ordered their operatives' to act upon the strike - notices. A coinplete stoppage is not expected. It is probable that in Ashton, Stalybridge, Hyde, Radcliffe, Manchester, Todmordan, Rochdale and Oldham, where a temporary, working agreement was operating, there will be little if any response to the strike call. In a number of the other districts the re sponse to the call is likely to be incomplete. At present it is impossible to estimate the extent of the stoppage. The Minister of Labour states that intervention on his part at the pre sent stage would not be useful.

The newspapers denounce what they term the tragic folly of the dispute, of which there is no prospect of an immediate settlement.

ITALIAN SETTLEMENT.

ROME, August 29.

The workers in the' Italian . cotton industry have accepted alO per cent, wages cut. The cut is one affecting all but the minimum wage earners, who are exempt from it. This agreement is welcome as being a triumph for the Fascist policy, which, while forbidding strikes, safeguards at the same time the lower paid workers. This occurs at the time when the cotton industry in the other countries is being paralysed by strikes.

DUTCH DISPUTE.

ROTTERDAM, August 29.

A strike of seamen here is threatened owing to the shipowners’ exploita tion of the sterling exchange. One firm, owing to losses, tried to induce its employees to accept a reduction. The Seamen’s Union refused this. The firm thereupon, sold its ships to an English firm, who re-chartered them, manned by British seamen, as it ia cheaper to pay British seamen the wages in sterling, than to pay Dutch seamen in florins. The Dutch Seamen's Union threatens to call a strike of all of the Rotterdam seamen unless the firm reverts to the former position.