Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, April 27th, 1932. OPEN INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE PROPOSALS.

Grey River Argus, 27 April 1932, Page 4

Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, April 27th, 1932. OPEN INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE PROPOSALS.

That the New Zealand workers are now more united politically than at any previous time could scarcely be gainsaid. In the face of such attacks on their employment, wages, conditions and rights as those that have characterised the past three or four years, they scarcely could be expected to remain in disagreement as to their need for the maximum measure of Parliamentary representation. But, in the absence up, to the present of a majority in' the Legislature, they must be expected also to realise in the mass that if their further spoliation is to be resisted, industrial unity and such economic power as that will confer is a prime necessity of the hour. They must see that it has been their comparative weakness in this respect which has tempted and encouraged all the vested interests behind the: Coalition regime to use the de-’ plorable depression as an opportunity for cheapening the workers’ only commodity in a degree not only out of proportion to the fall in the value of labour’s products, but greater than has ever been attempted before in the country. To demonstrate the truth of this it is only necessary to mention that in camps men are toiling to-day for four or five shillings a week; that female workers are paid nothing for their labour beyond their keep, and that standard rates are everywhere tending to disappear. In view, therefore, of the urgency of industrial solidarity and closer union organisation, it. is gratifying to find that good results have come from the Open Industrial Conference, recently held at Wellington, where one hundred and ten delegates spoke for one hundred and forty organisations with between ninety and one hundred thousand of a membership, including nearly half of the public servants. The object in view was to create an effective organisation for resisting the Government pol-j icy of wholesale wages reduction ;■ for the drafting of plans towards 1 a solution of the problem of unemployment and for the provision of means to protect trades unionism since that protection which, for forty years, has been given by the Arbitration Act, was recently removed by the Government. The decisions of the Conference, as disclosed by a press message today, constitute a proof that it was constructive in its work, and formed a proper conception of the needs of the situation. The report of the Conference shows that since the abolition of the compulsory, and therefore the effective, clauses of the Arbitration Act, in dustrial action alone remains to*

the trades union movement to protect their standard of living and to ensure at least reasonable conditions of employment. The Administration has left the workers no room for any other conclusion. The complete reorganisation of trades unionism in the Dominion is recommended, with no further dependence upon the Court, since it now is a broken reed. A Central National Council is proposed, on which every union, including the organisation of the seventeen thousand civil servants represented at the Conference, shall have delegates. The Council would be the core of a much closer form of organisation, and it would exercise a general control or supervision in all eases of industrial disputes. For the many classes of labourers in casual, seasonal or itinerant occupations, such as public works men, farm labourers, shearers, harvesters and threshing mill workers, one organisation, the General Workers’ Union, is recommended. These men, once solidly organised, would be found among the most influential elements in the movement. For unemployed workers, ■ also, a National Union is proposed, and it ought not now to be difficult to attain that object, because the unemployed workers are generally .as much alive as any others to the necessity for effective organisation. They have in many localities demonstrated as much. The Conference, in addition to the foregoing plans to protect the wages and conditions of all workers, has formulated others specifically in relation to the un employed. In recommending that the Board be replaced by an Administration directed by the Min-ister-in-Charge, with the assistance of four Members of Parliament, who are in closer touch with the situation in many respects than any bureaucratic body could be, the Conference had in view definite steps not merely for bare subsistence for those now registered, but their restoration in the speediest way to permanent jobs. Thus a Permanent Em. ployment Commission is suggested, representing farming, and industrial employers as well as workers, who would advise and assist the Government as to the methods by which continuous and ’ profitable work can be found so ' as at once to remedy the situation. ' That surely is an improvement on the present policy of spending millions upon works that are essentially unreproductive. There are many business people and producers who will agree that the Conference’s proposal to seek a restoration of the wages reductions would brighten the trade outlook and restore a deal of confidence. There is also the suggestion for a working week of five days of seven hours each, which would help to absorb in various occupations a larger number of male and female workers. The casual worker, it is recommended, should be provided with a weekly rate. An important proposal is that the workers also should demand that such work as the relief workers do shall be paid for at the curent rate for that class of em- * ployment. Finally the Conference upholds the principle of sustenance payments to the unemployed workers who are found no work on which to maintain themselves. The whole scheme which the Conference adopted should certainly commend itself to the serious consideration of each and every union. It may be susceptible of improvement, and it will be for any organisation with suggestions ( in that direction to send them forward. The design of the Coalition and its backers is so obviously a general, permanent and radical reduction in the people’s standard of living that it is no use to counter it any longer by a reliance upon the old methods. The first asset, however, is a moral one, the spirit of unity. If the Conference plans are taken up in that spirit, then good results may confidently be expected to follow .without delay.