THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 18

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES. Bt J. T. Pawl. QUEENSLAND DAIRY WORKERS’ HOURS. Tho Queensland Arbitration Court has awarded the 44-hour week to the employees in tho butter, cheese, and condensed milk industry. Tho employees asked that annua! leave l>o provided in lieu of (he statutory holidays. At present, overtime rates wore paid for all holidays other than saints’ days, a week each year being allowed in lieu. It was desired that this principle bo applied to all statutory holidays. After a conference the parties agreed to 15 days' annual holidays, and overtime at double rates on Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Easter Monday. It was decided that this principle be applied to the butter factory workers, and 18 days’ holiday to tho other branches of the industry. RAILWAY WORKERS’ HOURS IN QUEENSLAND. In tho Queensland Arbitration Court recently Mr Justice Webb dealt with an application for a variation of the award to provide for a statutory 44-hour week. On behalf of tho Railway Commissioners it was suggested that tho 44 hours should oe worked in five shifts of eight hours and one shift of four hours. Tho department considered that eight hours was a fair day s work. On behalf of the locomotive enginemen six shifts of seven hours and 20 minutes was suggested, while tho traffic employees asked that the 44 hours be worked in five shifts, eliminating Saturday work. Finally Mr Justice Webb decided that the 44.1i9urs should bo worked in five shifts of eignt hours and one shift of 'four hours. THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH. Last Wednesday marked an important alteration in the membership of tho catpontora 1 unions in New Zealand (says industrial Tramp” in the Auckland btar of tho 3rd inst.), as the section known as the “Ordinary Section” ceased to bo recognised throughout tho dominion. During an existence of over 50 years tho Now Zealand carpenters’ unions hove been brandies of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, having its headquarters at Manchester. In this world-wide organisation there were two classes or sections. The ordinary section, the members of which, after medical inspection, were balloted for ns candidates, participated in sick and funeral lenefits and unemployment am. superannuation benefits, under a scale of contributions per week which far exceeded tho humble sixpence now regarded as the pries of being a unionist. lo those who bv disability from ill health or old ago failed to pass tho tests for the ordinary section, there was available what was called tho trade section, at a lower contribution. Both sections mot as one union, but, in tho earlier stages iu tho dominion, the ordinary section members far outnumbered those of tho trade section. Under tho awards of the Arbitration Court, in order to obtain the preference clause, the unions had to bo tnrown open to all without ballot or other election, and tho trade section answered the purpose, and so, in tho course of time, tho memliors of tho O.SI. dwindled to a small number indeed. As an aid to this evolution, Now Zealand labour legis lation has been distinctly opposed to a continuance of .ho unions being used as a benefit society. When local autonomy was granted to tho Now Zealand carpenters' unions by headquarters in England, members, by a ballot, decided to abolish tho oidinarv section in the dominion, and accordingly on Juno 50 that section ceased to exist and all members stand on tho one footing. Those members of the O.S. on Juno 30 will participate in a of funds at tho credit of tho section, which have boon supplemented by a grant of £2OOO from headquarters in England. This is in commutation of their claim for superannuation and other benefits to which they have contributed their share as members. AMERICAN IMMIGRATION. Discussing tho economic effects of the limitation of immigration into the United States, the Economist says that while the demand for labour is certain to continue undiminishod, tho principal sources from which tho supply has been recruited have been practically closed, and this appears to bo likely to stimulate three movements which are of no little interest for tho future of the North American continent. The first is tho remarkable movement of negro population from the south to tho north, with the result that there are negro quarters in many cities whore a negro population was virtually non-existent 10 years ago. This tendency is likely to develop, and, with it, tho genesis of a new racial and social problem for the country os a whole. Black versus white will bo no longer a mere local issue in a few Southern States. Secondly, a partial solution has also been found in an increased number of arrivals from .non-quota countries, and. in particular, fnim Canada and Mexico. Tho lure of higher wages appears to have been especially strong in tho former case, and so long as this continues the dominion is faced with tho very real danger of losing some of its native-born population. Thirdly, there are indications already of a movement of population from tho country to tho towns. America is already more than half urban, and an advance of wages all round might encourage the further increase of tho urban population at the expense of the rural. Those three movements, with tho more homogeneous composition of tho nation, will certainly facilitate the expansion in numbers and in influence of the forces of organised labour. American manufacturers will be faced more and more with the typo of labour problem which has long confronted the English producer, and it, will bo interesting to son what the effect will be on real costs of production. Ono might, perhaps, bo permitted to conjecture that America as a sepcnis competitor on tho world market is hardly likely to bo strengthened by this new circumstance. FORTY-FOUR. HOUR WEEK. Speaking at Newton recently, Now South AVaJos Labour Premier Lang stated (says the Australian Worker) that tho introduction of tho 44-hour week would bo one of tho first legislative acts of tho New South Wales Labour Government. Addressing a gathering of manufacturers and others, Premier Lang said: “I want to warn you that I intend to give effect lo tho promise I made during the election campaign that if tho parly was returned to power the 44-hour working week would bo reintroduced. I want to warn you that I intend to give effect to it immediately, and manufacturers must make their adjustments on that basis.” “With Capital and Labour in harmony all will go well. It must work out that way. It is the duty of all to see that wo give work, hand in hand, in harmony and happiness. Some say, ‘You will ruin the country.’ Well, you already had the 44hour week when the Labour Government gave it in 1921. And 1921 was the most prosperous year the State has ever experienced the outstanding watermark of our prosperity. I hope that with a contented people everything will be as prosperous as then.” Mr Lang referred to the unemployed list of 15,000—men sleeping in places where you wopld not put your cat, without food, on the bare boards, without cover. “Mr Baddeley immediately went lo work,” ho said, “to relieve these men. Wo want to wipe this out. I am not in favour of 13,000 men unemployed and men sleeping on bare boards. “It will bo an act of policy to set to work to find employment and make them wage-earners—and do away with tho system of doles altogether. Doles are ruining this country. I hope this will bo only temporary relief. It ought not to exist. Wo shall do our host, but you can help. r lho men are there because there is no work.’’ Mr Lang said that as an Australian he stood for tho encouragement of our industries and for the settlement of Australians on the lands which they or their forebears had made habitable, valuable, and productive. “I see no reason,” ho added, “why preference should bo given to the manhood arid manufacturers of other nations. AH those countries legislate fundamentally in tho interests of their own people, and it is extreme folly for a young country like, ours to attempt, to bo generous to other nations at the expense oi our own. AVhen I was last in office as Treasurer 1 issued a minute to all tho departments urging preference to Australian goods, and during the recent election campaign my slogan on the platform and in the press was ‘Australian manhood, Australian products, and Australian industries.’ Now that I am Premier 1 intend to give effect to that policy. “I can assure our manufacturers,” ho concluded, “that tho policy of preference to local industries, which has been so emphatically endorsed by the people, will he put into’ operation by tho present Government. and if tho public follow the lead given by us an ora of industrial and general prosperity must inevitably result.” Labour Premier Lang stated last week end that he proposes to approach the Premiers of the other States, urging them t a mss gii-nilar Acte makinir 44 hours uni-

form throughout tho Commonwealth. Mr Lang does not believe that a shorter working week will have any ill-effect so far a-' Now South Waos is concerned, and he feels that it would bo to the benefit of the manufaoturing industries generally if the 44-hour week wore recognised by the whole of the fjtate Governments. THE NATIONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION. The number of States that are members of the International Labour Organisation is 56. These 56 Stales include, with two notable exceptions, all the great industrial states of tho world. The only sovereign states winch are not yot in the organisation are tho United States of America, Russia, Mexico, Turkey and Egypt. Tho attitudes of the various states members of the organisation with regard to it naturally vary greatly. , , T , The report of the Director of the International Labour Office for the year 1924, which has just been issued, points out that a mere list of the states members of the organisation is like a map on which the states members and tho states not members of the organisation are marked in different colours. Such a map. gives no idea of the constancy or tho intensity of the relations which tho various States maintain with the organisation. A student of international questions could draw a vivid of the various feelings, attitudes and activities of tho various states in regard to the organise tion itself. One great industrial country may regard tho organisation as an important official institution which aims at diminishing the competition of tho backward countries,. and sue.h a country makes every effort to 'ratify and carry out as completely as possible the conventions for tho protection of tho workers. Another country, on tho other hand, may look upon it aa a direct expression and a striking manifestation of the democratic ideas which it considers to bo the foundation of a lasting poace. A country of this kind may attach more importance to increasing tho moral power of the organisation than to adhering immediately and strictly to a convention. One country may constantly have recourse to the office to assist it in creating or coordinating its social legislation, .while another may .attempt to find in it an opportunity to bear witness, before the public opinion of tho world, to its desire for progress. The Director’s report draws attention to an interesting example of the development of special Labour Departments in various countries, particularly the South American States. In the Argentine Republic, in Brazil, in Chile, and in Uruguay, Departments of Labour have within recent years been sot up, and in 1924 other South American States, notably Columbia, Panama, and Ecuador, have established departments for labour question. In almost all cases tho Governments have definitely stated, when sotting up such departments, that one of their purposes is to keep in constant touch with the International Labour Office. In this way, the international relations which are the very foundation of tho organisation ate being intensified. In addition, however, to sotting up special departments in their own countries, many Governments are talcing steps to appoint permanent representatives at Genova, and thus to establish still more direct relations with the office. At tho present time Japan, Poland, and Sweden have representatives at Geneva, who are specially and exclusively accredited to tho International Labour Office. Finland, Hungary, tho Irish Free State, and Canada have permanent representatives in Genova, who are accredited both to the International Labour Office and to the League of Nations, while tho Brazilian Government have recently set up an organisation in Genova which practically amounts to an Embassy if the League of Nations, with a special department for laision with tho International Labour Organisation. In addition, Albania, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, and Voi»zuola have taken special measures to ensure laision with the organisation through their diplomatic or consular representatives. The presence of such representatives in Genova is of great value in regularising and intensifying tho relations between tho organisation and the various nations of tho world.