TOILERS' TROUBLES.

NZ Truth, Issue 66, 22 September 1906, Page 5

TOILERS' TROUBLES.

Concerning the Corporation Casuals. Ganger Ledger, the Nigger Driver. A Matter for the Municipal Council. It is practically the case that the Wellington City Council were bulldozed into paying their hard-toiling employees • a fair wage for a fair day's work, and even then the Council had to contend against other servants, who make no pretence of their superiority over the road-delver, metal crusher and the other branches of hard labor, and who would, if they could so manage it, keep the laborer down as low as the dust beneath their patent leather boots. Credit, of course, is due to the Councillors, who, recognising how exhorbitant is the cost of living m Wellington and how doubly heavy were the burdens cast on the backs of their humbler employees, attempted to alleviate their lot by an increase of wages. What, however, seems strange is that while all the permanently employed men, lose no time by holidays, often caused by inclement weather, the casual or temporary hands, are docked, and what is more cruel are the VICTIMS OF NIGGER-DRIVING GANGERS, who seem to deliberately deviate from the path of reason and single out the casual for the hardest work, expect him to undertake impossible tasks and constantly hold the threat of the "sack" over the men, unfortunate enough tb be so classed. This is a little matter which corporation casuals have several times complained of, and some Councillor will be doing; a signal service to these men if he brings the matter up at the next meeting of the Council. Most of the casuals are employed on the Island Bay pipe-laying* track, which, it is understood, is likel* to keep the permanents and casuals (if they are lucky enough)- pretty busy for a couple of years. In one gangLedger's gang it is called— there has been trouble lately, and from all accounts the men responsible for it had cood cause, and a similar cause the City Council should guard against unless it wishes to be classed as a sweating, body-racking corportation. Nawying, or laboring work, isn't gentle exercise at any time. The genuinely honest, hard-workinp man who, by the sweat of his brow, maintains himself and family doesn't complain as a rule of corns on his hands, and he certainly does not cultivate them on a more fleshy part of his anatom y, and when torn and lacerated hands are exhibited as a proof of the hard tasks imposed on a road-digging laborer something is wrong somewhere. What that somethins is and where it is wrong will be told. Jervois-iauay has lately been the scene of dinging operations m connection with the layine of pipes, and when it is said that the road is a made-up one, and its formation almost AS HARD AS ROCK any laboring man will know that to dig. a trench 24ft by 3ft to a 4ft depth is a job hairdly likely to be performed m eight hours. Such was the job set tlie _ other day by this niggerdriver Ledger, the failure to complete the task being the sack on the spot. Moreover, the, weather recently has not been 'too pleasant, even for laborers engaged m roaddigging, and a number of men preferring to lose a day's pay, being casuals, of course, did not turn. up. Next day, when they did put m an appearance, Mister Ledger told them not to start, but to stand-by till he wanted them. Subsequently he found he Could not do without them, and four at once resumed their jobs, the fifth was more independent and preferred to take his- chance elsewhere. During the following days, however, quite a number of the men knocked off work, the reason being that ganger Ledger was far too strong for them. It seems to "Truth" that it is useless to point out to Dimes, the boss cock of the water-works that this fellow Ledger is far too noble an individual to have charge of a gang of white laboring men, niggers m a Louisiana cotton-field are just THE SORT OF HUMAN CATTLE he could work with success.- Who is Ledger anyhow ? Or is it that he ip simply obeying instructions. Sweating and body-racking is bad enough m private firms, but when it is found on works carried on under the Municipal Council it is time ■ surely that a long and loud protest was uttered. The casually employed men seem to be the butt of most of the gangers, who, for reasons hard to divine, are not so hard on the permanently employed men. At anyrate such is the statement seriously made by several of the casuals. Ledger is -only a ganger employed by the Council and he tries ito get every ounce and more out of the men under him. Laborers who have worked under Ledger have also worked under contractors, and Work under the latter, compared with' the former, is mere child's play. This seems to "Truth" a serious matter and one which the Council should thoroughly investigate, and if the facts stated are proved this ganger Ledsrer should be relegated to his proper sphere, which s certainly not over-seeing gangs of white men.