"CA' CANNY UNIONISM."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7373, 27 January 1902, Page 4

"CA' CANNY UNIONISM."

A new kind of unionism has sprung v? among the workmen in Great Britain. Instead of raising the rate of wages or directly diminishing the number of hours of employment, this policy aims at lessening the quantity of work done. Among political economists, it ia known as "restricting the output of labor," but its Socialist advocates have given it the name of " Ca' Canny." The title and the policy were both very clearly explained some time ago in the Seamen's Chronicle :—": — " ' Ca' Canny' is a simple and handy phrase which is used to describe a new instrument which may be used in place of a strike. If two Scotsmen are walking, and one walks too quiokly for the other, he says to him, ' Ca' canny, mon, oa' canny,' which means, • Go easy, man, go easy.' " Similarly, if any workmen are doing what the unions consider too much

for the wages, they are coerced into limiting themselves to working at some rate agreed upon. Four illustrations of thn method wera given. For c£s a month " a eeaman is shown putting all his energy into pulling a rope ; for £4 a seoond man is being employed ; for £8 10s three men are at the same rope, smoking, and looking the picture of indifference ; for " £8 a month" four man are lying asleep . on the deck, with the rope dangling loose between them. This ca' canny policy first became conspicuous at the time of the big shipping difficulties, and since then its principles have been widespread. The Heame&'s Chronicle referred to the objeot of raisiog wages without striking, but generally what is aimed at is to prevent any hard work. The idea seems to be that if tbe energetic and industrious ara not permitted to work up to I their full capacity, more labor will Ibe needed. Then there will be more unemployed called in, and, finally, when all the unemployed are absoxbsd, the workers can com- f mand any terms they please from their employers. " Oa' canny" is particularly active in the bnilding trade. Thirty years ago it is said that an English bricklayer would lay 1000 to 1200 bricks a day, and an American even more. Now, it is alleged, an unwritten law forbids anyone in Great Britain to lay more than 400, or, if be is working for the London County Council, 330. One builder found that the men employed on a school for the London School Board actually confined themselves to 70 bricks a day. Cases are quoted of men who put their heart into their work being persecuted and forced to leave their job. Some men have been turned out of the union and made to forfeit the money they had been putting in for years, as a provision for sickness and old age.