PLUMBERS’ APPRENTICES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 99, 9 April 1928, Page 4

PLUMBERS’ APPRENTICES

•'CADDIES” FOR JOURNEYMEN. ARBITRATION COURT INTERLUDE. An application by the Plumbers’ and Gasfitters’ Union for a reduction in the number of apprentices to bt employed was under consideration before the Aribtration Court at Wellington last week, when Mr B. L. Hammond, who appeared for the em ployers. said it was hardly consistent for the union to ask for a reduction in the number of apprentices when it was a well-known fact that journeymen practically insisted on taking boys with them when they went out on jobs. He quoted the case of a journeyman who had given up his job because he was not permitted to have the services of a boy. Representing the employees Mr H. Thompson denied that journeymen insisted in having boys with them. It is a mistaken idea, he said, 1 know of plenty of jobs where journeymen go out on their own.” Do they not take boys to carry the tools and light fires? asked Mr Justice Frazer. Mr Thompson: Not always, your Honour. Mr Justice Frazer: Well I have hail a good many plumbing jobs done in iriy time, and 1 have never seen a man on his own. Mr Hammond: They all have their caddies.—(Laughter;. Mr Justice Frazer: I think it is generally recognised, npart altogether from any joke that it is a convenience for n journeyman to hate a boy with him.