UNEMPLOYMENT AND WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20024, 14 August 1928, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT AND WAGES.

Sir, —In commenting upon the inefficiency of New Zealand workers "Colonial" casts all the blame upon the labour unions. However, a lengthy experience in controlling large numbers of working men has convinced me that the labour unions have been the best friends employers ever had. Strikes are not fomented by union officials, who obviously have nothing to gain by them, but generally by a dominant section of the workers who consider they have been underpaid. The trouble is that many employers will persist in paying a low wage, viz., the minimum wage, which again means an arbitration award governed by the bare cost of living, and it is evident that as all the workers engaged at a particular class of work receive the same wage the earnings of the best men will not permit them to purchase more than the bare necessaries of life, and there is no incentive to increased production or efficiency. Employers should realise this and use their influence in getting the Arbitration Act amended. John Guiniven.

Sir,—ln Friday's Herald we read of the really serious condition of the painting trade, and we " men in the street " wonder how the problem can he tackled. We give what we can in money and clothes. The commercial travellers' harvest proved there is no indifference to the unemployment question, but we feel there is something else wanted, beyond palliatives, beyond unnecessary Government works, and certainly not pauperisation. I am a believer in trade unionism. It has righted many wrongs, cleared away much injustice, and given a power to those who had been denied one. I ask the trade unionists, however, when are they going to do something themselves to help trade? Should their union rules continue inflexible, or could a little " sweet reasonableness " be imparted? Britain and America both recognised that war time prices and conditions required adjustment. America speeded up production to an amazing extent. Britain is lowering the cost of production. New Zealand 10 years after the war is not making the slightest attempt to do either (I speak of the industrial branches only; agriculture has taken the lesson to heart and profited thereby, as the market returns show). As a sympathetic, but puzzled, outsider I am more than ever puzzled to-day, after conversations with two tradesmen. They are not unionists nor do they employ labour—just work on their own account. The first man complained of slackness of trade—had only done two little jobs in two months, but added—" Of course I want to make my thirty shillings a day or a job is no good to me." The second men, after the usual remarks about trade, said: "Oh, yes, I keep busy; if I cannot get work at one price I take the best I can get. I always do good work, and a little job often leads to something better." The case of 50 men applying for one job is certainly very sad, but the failure of the fortunate one to turn up and do the work is sadder. I personally have known of many similar incidents. So I am still— Puzzled.