INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17324, 25 May 1918, Page 12

INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

NEWS AND NOTES. BY the HON. J. T. PAUL, M.L.C. AX UNSETTLED QUESTION. J-itst woek some trouble occurred in an Auofclatid boot factory over the "unskilled worker" question. The dispute has boon settled. However, ono aspect of tlio question is interesting beoouao it covers a point on which thero is difference of opinion among union officials. Who can become a member of a union? Can any wan become a member of the union iu ;un unskilled industryho lirsfc become employed in the industry? If not, can an employer join u union? I havo heard very interesting discussions arise out of various answers to these questions. The point remains unsettled. * In stating the case for the union in the Au ok land! trouble, Mr C. A. Wat.tls (secretary of the union) said that an application was mude to him by a soapmaker for menibership of the Bootmakers' Union. The man was not 'at the time of making the application Actually engaged in the boot industry. "I could not admit as a member a man who, I understood, was not at the time working at the trade," said Mr Watts, "and told him that when he had started in the boot industry he would be able to join the union." ANOTHER OPEN CONGRESS. The executive of the United Federation of Labour has agreed to the recommendation of the Auckland oonferenee of unions, and has decided to call a national conference to consider the question of conscription of labour. Tho Otago Labour Council considered the Auckland proposal last week, and decided that the recent legislation and its probable effects should bo considered by tho annual conference of the United Federation of Labour. Several open congresses have been held during the past few years, and the results havo not been satisfactory. In no cose has tho result warranted the expenditure, nor has the result beon of appreciable benefit to Labour. It is impossible to constitute a congress such as is proposed on a basis which -will be representative. Tho union is the unit of representation. Unions within easy reach of have no difficulties in regard! to representation, but other unions havo. A scratch conference without a controlling or administrative head is unlikelv to achieve anything of permanent value. It is quite time tho United Federation of Labour examined itself and decided on a definite line of policy. It is the only national industrial organisation in the dominion. So far as the national voice of industrial Labour can be mado articulate the United Federation of Labour is tho expression ot that voice. . Certainly it is not old, but it has been in existence in its present form long enough to guarantee that its annual conference fairly expresses the will of organised Labour. The annual conference of the federation will be at least as representative and capable of more definite expression than the open congress can be. Nothing is permanently gained through representation at any conference unless the delegates express the will of those whom them represent. The annual conference of the United Federation of Labour opens in Wellington in .rulv. The open congress will start a few days later. It is difficult to sre whv the annual conference would not hive sufficed. It is still more difficult to understand why the executive of the federation should have decided to call the ooen congress without consulting the district councils. THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION. I gather from an English trade journal that the first of the Whiteley Industrial Councils has been set up in the pottery trade. The council consists of 60 members, chosen in equal numbers from tho employers and trade unions concerned. The general object is the advancement of the industry as a whole, and the. particular objects or means are as follows:—-Consideration of the wages and selling prices; the regulation of production in correspondence with the market; the conditions of health of tho people engaged in the industry; the technical education of apprentices; the study of trade processes; the encouragement of invention; the compilation of statistics; and tho representation of the industry on any local and national industrial councils that may be formed. These industrial councils are the most interesting modern experiment. They are the result of recommendations made by the Reconstruction Committee appointed by tho British Government. The report (known as the Report because the Right Hon. J. H. Whitdey, M.P., was chairman) is one of the most widely-discussed docuthe industrial situation arising out of the war. The committee was charged to make and consider suggestions for securing a permanent improvement in the relations between employers and workmen, and to recommend means for securing that industrial conditions affecting the relations between employers and workmen shall be systematically reviewed by those concerned, with a view to improving conditions in the future. The Industrial Council mentioned above is apparently the first set up. The council was to be confined to representatives elected by the Employers' Associations and Trade Unions, and contemplate the complete organisation employers and workers. ; IS "CA' OANNY" SETTLED POLICY. I intimated last week that the Industrial Association was offering 12 nrizes for the best essays on "The Utilisation of Our waste Products." Every trade union in .New Zealand has been circularised. With each circular several copies of a reprint article from a New Zealand publication wero enclosed. Tho article was based on a recent | magazine contribution of Dr G. B. Hunter, a captain of British industry and chairman of a well-known shipbuilding firm. From a Labour point of view tho article was like * 0 , curate ' s e SS- It was good in parts. Anyhow, part of it was highly controversial, as witness: — '' It seems to bo the settled policy of the unionists in New Zealand to adhere strictly to the " ca' canny" policy, first, by insistence on all their members being paid a minimum wage irrespective of efficiency, and, secondly, by the mistaken action of discouraging and deterring members from doing a reasonable maximum amount of work. With theni it is " work not so much an object as good wagea" The minimum wago means that the slowest and least skilled workers have been allowed to set the pace and the standard. Tho restriction of production is due to the belief that maximum individual production woufd injure the class; it was the same idea, Dr Hunter contends, that caused the machinery riots and the destruction of improved machinery in darker and more ignorant days." "Settled policy," in plain English, means that the questions have been carefully considered and discussed in all aspects, definite conclusions arrived at, and the conclusions fixed as the'"settled policy'' of New Zealand unionists. The "settled policy" is "ca' canny, says the writer. Each man- must speak tho truth as he knows it. My experience is that tho statement is absolutely incorrect. In part the writer displays confusion of thought. In his view tho minimum wage insistence is proof of "oa* canny." Tho principle of a minimum wfcge is that a man shall have enough monoy to maintain himself and his dependents in decency. In certain industries the employers have made tho minimum wage, as fixed by the Arbitration Court, the maximum wage. In certain other industries they have not. The minimum wage represents society's standard of decency. Any employer may, if he chooses, pay any employee double the minimum wagp, awarded by the court. It is not the unionists who make the minimum wage the maximum. If from thoso facts a writer can prove that the workers are guilty of " ca' canny," well—this is a funny world. JOTTINGS. Under the auspices of the Auckland Workers' Educational Association a chairmanship class is beiug started, the lecturer being tho Hon. George Fowlds. Queensland has added to the lengthy list of State enterprises the businoss of" iron smelting. The first operations were carried out recently at Ipswich, and wero belioved to bo thoroughly satisfactory, though the quality of. the pig-iron produced had yet to bo tested. Furthsr consideration has been given by tho Labour Council of • New South Wales to the report of a committee appointed to foimulate .1 scheme for the abolition of craft unionism, and reorganisation 011 an industrial basis. After considerable discussion, and the rejection of the committee's scheme, it was decided to adopt the latter as a whole, and to refer It to tho Trndrs Union Congress, to meet in August. According to tho investigation conducted in Oregon by Miss Marie L. Obenauor and Miss Bertha von der Nienbcrg, the minimum wage law for women which went into effect in that State in 1913 has had none of tlie disastrous effects upon women, workers so freely prophesied by th 1 opponents of tho measure. Tbo substance of tlio report of those two investigators is that women havo not boon replaced by men, and tho rates of pay for women lwve increased, •both for the experienced the inaxpeci-. cnced workers.