GO-SLOW.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 11 August 1926, Page 9

GO-SLOW.

DAMAGING BRITISH INDUSTRY,

BENEFITING FOREIGNE.RI3. That a condition of mistrust, between employer and employee in England wa* stagnating the industrial activities <>' the United Kingdom and assisting ii the encouragement of foreign competitors, who, by reason of less labour friction were able to place their goods on the English market to, undersell English products, was- a statement made the other, day by Mr. Howard Middleton, who has returned to Fremantle, West Australia, from, a, two- years’ visit to England, where- had boon attached to the big. Rugby firm of the British Thonso-n-Houston Company, electrical engineers. For experience, Mr. Middleton, -saic" he worked on -benches- alongside British workmen, who were ruining industry by go-slow methods. They were working o-n the. piece-work principle and only worked sufficiently to earn about £3 10s per week, lest the- employers, -seeing them working faster and earning more, might reduce the rate for piecework. “J. have seen men working on rush job* during the night,” said Mr. Middleton, “go and sleep for a couple- of hours, in case they made too. much and gave the employers an. ide-a- of their real capability. Because- of this fact English, electrical engineering product'are a high price, and while. .1. was in England., there were several instances of municipalities, morally bound to -support industries within their boundary, being to accept tenders for electrical work fron -Swiss and other Continental firms, because of advantageous prices, which, in some cases, were twothirds of these-by an English firm within their district. Mr. Middleton, .said that lie thought the employees were not entirely to blame for this condition, and that although they were deliberately limiting the output, a few friendly gestures from the employers would engender greater trust between them and their workers.