WOMEN WORKERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 29 May 1930, Page 4

WOMEN WORKERS

IN ENGINEERING INDUSTRY STRONG PROTEST (By Telegraph—Press Association) DUNEDIN, 28th May. Tho Duncdin branch of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, at a meeting called to consider the proposals of the employers to reduce wages and to utilise female_ labour, carried the following resolution: — "This branch desires to enter its emphatic protest against the action of the Ironmasters' Federation in. its application to the Arbitration Court to amend the existing award in the engineering industry to give special provisions to the manufacturing section embodying a reduction in wages and the introduction of female labour into the industry. We' consider the present wage paid in the engineering industry is a disgrace to the country, and the reward for skill has •been reduced to such a small margin that it- is practically non-existent at the present time. We declare that we are prepared to fight to a finish any attempt to make worse the conditions in the present award, and desire the whole of the workers in the industry to carry similar resolutions. We consider the attempt to introduce female labour into the industry as a blot on a decent community, especially when the wage proposed to be paid to such workers is less than half the rates ruling for similar work performed by males, and is fully illustrative of the callous indifference of the members of the Ironmasters' Federation in introducing such pernicious conditions in a civilised community. We desire to express our utter contempt at the expressed desire of the Ironmasters' Federation toward cordial relations between the workers and employers in the industry, and to state that if such relations are to exist they will have to submit conditions of employment that are more palatable to a British community."