LABOUR WORLD

Grey River Argus, 28 July 1925, Page 3

LABOUR WORLD

MOULDERS' STRIKE. SYDNEY, July 2". As a protest against the cmp.oyment of unskilled labour on die moulding machines, the iron mould u s employed at the Clyde Engineering Works have struck. 'lbero are 100 affected. A TRIBUTE TO DIRECT LABOUR. Swansea has just put through a highly successful housing experiment with direct labour, and the Municipal Journal, a no-i-politieal paper, tells hov. it was done: — “Instead of regarding the workmen on its housing schemes as mere instruments of labour, to be ordered about and used as a hod or a hammer, it lias accorded them a voice in the iiiiwtioii of their work,’’ says the Municipal Journal.

“An Advisory Committee, consisting of members of the Corporation and oi representatives of the building trade, was vested with tin' right to recommend as to the appointment ot foremen and oi the general conduct and routine of work. . . .’’ “By taking the workmen into counsel, not only have they gained by actual experience, with administrative details often jealously guarded from their sight, but the community reaps a distinct advantage. Swansea gets its houses at a lower cost and more rapidly.”

It may be added that the men engaged on the experiment were gvaranteed full time in wet weather am holidays with wages.