UNION BOSSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 113, 9 April 1930, Page 7

UNION BOSSES

AS EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR. THOUSANDS "PAID IN WAGES. Whilo their one mission in life is to fight the hated capitalistic boss, quite a number of unions are themselves employers of no mean importance (writes F. 0.8. in the Sydney Morning Herald). The largest employer is the largest union—the Australian Workers’ Union. Its weekly wagos bill throughout the Commonwealth is £2500, which pays the salaries of nearly 400 employees. Tho A.W.U. has a membership of 150,000 workers, and embraces 130 different awards. Its officers visit every important town in the Commonwealth, and its operations extend frofa Sydney to Fremantle and from Darwin tp the Great ’ Australian Bight. Strangely enough, its members pay much less in fees and levies than many other unions. The highest dues are paid uy tho Miners' Federation. In some cases the miners have paid up to £3O a year in levies and subscriptions. Officers in the A.W.U. find their duties to-day comparatively light to what they used to be. Their wages were well earned in the early days. Moral suasion methods for refractory members were unknown. Shearers who fell from graco were summarily “wood-heaped.” The offenders woro forcibly ejected from their quarters, were regarded as outcasts, and wero politely told to sleep on the wood-heap. Those were the days when men shore for 8s a hundred. Physical force was often the only method for effectively inducing shearers to join the union. • • Union secretaries, like their memhers, have found it advisable to band themselves into an organisation known as the Union Secretaries’ Association, to protect thoir intorests. This body meets at different times to discuss subjects of mutual interest, and when Labour is in power, to dissect legislation and foreshadow legislation. Wages of union secretaries are fixed by their unions, but an attempt has been made on more than one occasion to have the association registered as an industrial organisation, and thus enable members to apply for an award. The move has always been defeated by tho smaller unions on the ground that a flat rate for union secretaries might force the weak unions to pay more in wages than they could afford. UNION OFFICIALS’ SCHOOL. The functions of tho Union Secretaries’ Association.differ very considerably from what they were when the body was founded about 20 years ago by the well-known industrial . advocate, Mr M, Conningtcm. At that time Mr Connington was secretary of tho trolley and draymen, and started the association going with the object of educating union secretaries in Court procedure, so that they could handle their own cases of minor importance. It was really a school for union secretaries with its founder, Mr Connington, a schoolmaster. To give pupils practical experience the meeting-room was transformed into a court, and Mr Connington acted as Judge. The laws of evidence wero taught, and the secretaries were the advocates. They soon lost their stage-fright, and were able to save their unions many pounds in legal expenses. Among the “pupils” were his fellow advocate, Mr “Monty” Henwood and Mr E. C. Magrath M.L.C., both anthorities on arbitration. To-day Mr Henwood holds the position of industrial advocate to tho railway workers’ branch of tho Australian Workers’ Union, and Mr Magrath is the Federal industrial advocate of the Printing, Industry Employees’ Union. UNION SECRETARY’S POSITION. Secretaries are almost invariably recruited from the. ranks of the Anion. They still retain their membership, but spme belong to the Clerks’ Union as well. Many of the Trades Hall secretaries are not allowed to receive in wages any rate higher than that obtaining in their particular industry. Some time ago the Clerks’ Union framed an award to include union secretaries. A union secretary, however, is not a clerk within the meaning of the word “clerk,” and therefore is not covered by the constitution of the union. The Clerks’ Union cannot, therefore, legally include union secretaries within the scope of their award. In the same way, union organisers are unable to bo classed as clerks, although a number of them are members of the Clerks’ Union. There are some cases in which union secretaries were not apointed from tho ranks of their members. Mr Arthur Rutherford.was secretary of the Saddlers’ Union, and during the regime of the Lang Government was appointed an. industrial inspector with Senator J. P. Dunn and others. The appointment was cancelled when Mr Bavin becam© Premier, but shortly afterwards Mr Rutherford was elected secretary of the Hospital and Asylum Employees’ Union. Some years ago a union secretary lost hi« position because it waa discovered that he was unfinancial in his organisation, TRADES HALL LANDLORD. The Trades Hall Association is the landlord at the Trades Hall, It is a large employer of labour, having a *? l ® staff of cleaners as well as an office staff. A few years ago the cleaners went on strike because of certain action taken by the caretaker, who, strangely enough, was president of tile Miscellaneous Workers’ Union, ot which the strikers were members, the trouble was adjusted, however, before the Trades Hall officials had to vacate their offices on account of lincleanliness. To the credit of the trade union movement it should be said that'there was no “blacklegging.” The strikers were not replaced by volunteers; and there were no loyalists. The association has charge of the letting of the offices at the Trades Hall. On occasions it has not hesitated to employ the accepted methods of eviction when unions have got into arrears with their rent, me Clerks’ Union, for instance some year* nco had to do a "moonlight flitter from the Trades Hall because it could not pay its rent. The site on;, which the Trades Hall stands was originally a grant by Act of Parliament to the trade union movement. A large army of typists, clerks, bookkeepers, and office hands are employed by the unions throughoutthe Commonwealth. All are nbliged to be members of the Clerks Union. Award rates are paid, and the only record of any case in which a member was underpaid by a union was when the wages of a typist in the employ of the Clerks’ Union itself were reduced. The highest paid officer in the trade union movement is the general secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Mr E. Grayndie” M.L.C., who draws £IOOO a rear.