“STARTLING FACTS” ABOUT RELATIVE POSITION OF WORKERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22888, 7 March 1949, Page 6

“STARTLING FACTS” ABOUT RELATIVE POSITION OF WORKERS

(P.A.) DUNEDIN, Mar. 5. “it is not surprising that the Minister of Finance, Mr. W. Nash, is perturbed by the insistent demands of unions for a substantial increase in the rates of wages of wage and salary workers amounting to approximately £2 a week, or a total of £40,000.-000 a year," said the secretary of the Otago Trades Council. Mr. L. F. Evans, in a statement. , , . “The Minister is so perturbed that he is trying to convince the workers against their will that such a demand, if acceded to, will havb a disturbing influence on the economy of the country. Doubtless, he will produce figures of his own compilation that will create doubts in the minds of a timid few, sufficient at least to make them hesitant in sustaining their demand.” The statement added: “There is, of course, another side to the picture which Mr. Nash will place before the Auckland Trades Council at its meeting and which tells quite a different story. „ “It is the intention of the Otago Trades Council to place before its delegates next Monday night the conclusions which have been observed after an exhaustive research into the impact of the stabilisation regulations on the several groups of people in the Dominion. “This will probably lead to a reorganisation of the approach by industrial workers to the Arbitration Court. “The findings of the executive committee of the Otago Trades Council reveal some startling facts ,in relation to the decline of the relative position of the workers in the economy of the country and the rewards for their labours in comparison with other sections of the community.”