TRADE VERY SLACK IN CHRISTCHURCH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 23 July 1930, Page 6

TRADE VERY SLACK IN CHRISTCHURCH

EMPLOYEES TAKING WEEK ABOUT AT WORK

AS ALTERNATIVE TO UN EM PLOY'IVIENT

(By Telegraph—. Special to "The Mail")

CIIRISTCHURCH, 22nd July

llecnii.se trade is so slack and to avoid as far as possible paying hands off permanently, many linns in Christehureh are standing (heir employees oil for weekly periods in turn. In some cases the men themselves have agreed to this course. The system is approved by the trade union oflicials generally, who recognise that the alternative would be the loss of employment for many men. Several trade union secretaries whom a reporter saw to-day were agreed that the employers, generally speaking, were "playing the game," and doing their best, to keep their hands on. One secretary said that many of the firms were genuinely "up against it," and that, some of them were carrying more staff than the business really warranted at such a time. "There, is little doubt/' ho said, "that in both wholesale Mid retail trades, and even in the case of manufacturing houses, this is true. In some cases, however, it is done partly to keep up appearances. Mr (i. T. Thurston, secretary to the Canterbury Engineers and Allied Trades Union, said that the employees, in agreeing to stand down in turn, had shown the true, spirit of comradeship. Many of the motor garages, ho said, were working short time, as well as short handed. Ho had never known this to be. the case before. He himself had certainly no complaint to make o? the system of standing men down in turn. I