The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1928. TOO HIGH A PRICE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 4 May 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1928. TOO HIGH A PRICE.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera Manap,. Normanby, Okainwa, Eltham. Manyatoki. Kapom?a. Alton, Hurleyrille Patea. Waverley. Mokoia. Whak'amara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

It was announced recently that, the United Mine Workers of New Zealand and the New Zealand Seamen’s Union had entered into a. compact of mutual aid in the event of one or other of these industrial entering into a. dispute with the' employers in the respective industries. This is indeed an ominous sign. The seamen have pledged themselves to refuse • to carry coal should the. miner's be engaged in a fight and the miners are pledged not to produce coal for "scab” ships—that is, for ships which may be worked by -nonunion labour in time of strike. Either union will support the other financially while it is on strike. No great imagination is required to foresee the motive for this combined action, but in l case the public should be 'lacking in perception, it has been announced that both unions are seeking -new agreements with the employers. This- agreement between two powerful unions makes more remote than ever the prospect of obtaining industrial peace in our time. It is particularly disheartening to find that our leading unionists continue to look to Australian unionism for guidance in tacticisi at a time when some of the staunch unionists in the Old Country have decided, after many years of bitter experience, that the greatest hope for the workers lies- in conciliatory methods. Probably there are many unionists congratulating themselves upon the completion of this contract in the belief that "union is strength,” but if they paused a moment to examine carefully the "achievements” of their comrades in industry in Australia, they would find food for serious -reflection. What have the big Australian unions done for their members? Doubtless the leaders keep the men well posted as to the triumphs of combined Labour over the bosses, but apart -from petty disputes, the holding up of production and transport, the huge losses to the community, nnd; the. settling of the quarrel after many days spent in stupid idleness, what has been the benefit to the rank and file? -A statement, issued recently by Mr Bruce, Prime Minister of the • Commonwealth, gave an illuminating answer to this question. He revealed that during the last eight years the miners in New South Wales had lost nearly £6,000,000 in wages alone! During the last six years, the workers of -Australia have lost the stupendous total ' sum of £7,000,000 in wages owing to strikes, hold-ups, go-slows and the -like. These figures represent the actual cash which has been withheld from the wage-earn-ers because they, or their leaders, have seen fit to stop the wheels of industry while some point in dispute—and we all

'know just how petty and foolish, these points may he —has been settled by the leaders. What the loss has been to the whole of the community during that, period of six years there are no means of computing. Australia if? a country where proper machinery is provided for the meeting of the employers' and employees in cases of dispute, but in spite of this attempt to legislate strikes out of existence, we find that the working days lost in the Commonwealth each year since 1922 have not been less than *BOO,OOO and the sum of wages lost has never been below £700,000. In 1923-25-26-27 the workers were deprived of wages and the community of its anticipatedl inflow of money, amounting (in each of those years) to substantially more than a million pounds. If the Labour leaders of this country and of Australia would take a little time off from their ceaseless “negotiations” and “organising” and work out the benefits they have procured for the workers in their unions to off-set these losses the result would bo of the greatest value to the worker, who is too often made the dupe of ambitious leaders, and, if the lesson were taken to heart by the unionists, the prosperity of Australia would increase in proportion to the workers ’ benefit. The seamen and the miners in New Zealand apparently are out to increase their wages, but if they are depending on their power to paralyse industry rather than on, their assistance in making it economically sound, for industry to pay more, they are depending on a weak reed. They may win some of their disputes, or they may win them all, but. in doing so they may pay far too high a price for their “triumphs.”