COTTON AND WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20307, 15 July 1929, Page 10

COTTON AND WAGES.

The trouble long threatening the cotton industry of Lancashire seems to have come to a head. The employers have decided to post notices announcing that wages will be reduced by 12.\ per cent, from the end of this month. It is expected that, unless the Government intervenes to some effect, work will cease, throwing some 500,000 people out of employment. The proposed reduction is the same as that suggested, and hotly resented by the operatives, at the end of 1027. Another and even more strongly-resisted proposal, to increase the working week from 48 to 52.j hours, including the old before-breakfast shift, has apparently been abandoned, for there is no mention of it. The employers contend that costs must be reduced if foreign competition is to be countered effectively ; wages represent a high proportion of the cost of production, therefore, a cut must be made : the alternative is increasing loss of custom, greater depression, and worse things for Lancashire than those existing now. The answer is that the basis on which labour is ir)ade to figure so largely is not a complete calculation of costs. If all factors are counted, spinning and weaving wages represent quite a small fraction of the total costs of a finished piece of cloth. Apart from the contention that much of the industry is grossly over-capitalised—a legacy from the war-time and post war boom—it is argued that the various finishing charges represent a more legitimate point of attack than wages if economy in production is required. In support of this there can be quoted a report issued by the Joint Committee of Cotton Trade Organisations urging the cooperation of all sections of the trade to cnsuie that cloth is produced, dyed, printed, bleached, packed and shipped at the lowest possible price. The answer to these arguments was that wages must be reduced to a lower level, whatever else was done to secure economy in production. Over a year of waiting finds the employers still of the same opinion, as shown by their ultimatum. There ir, no reason to suppose the temper of the operatives has changed. The position, therefore, is one of crisis in a great and basic British industry.