HIGH WAGES AND SHORT HOURS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 13

HIGH WAGES AND SHORT HOURS.

TRADE UNION POLICY. SIR G. B. HUNTER’S CRITICISM. SHIPBUILDING HANDICAPS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 19. While undoubtedly the trade outlook for 1928 is, in general, bright and brightening, there arc aspects of it that give cause for considerable thought on the part of loaders in the industrial field. In this connection the observations and reflections of Sir George B. Hunter (chairman of Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, shipbuilders), as oppressed in an interview with the Financial t imes representative, will be of wide interest. “ The prospect at the beginning of the year is uncertain,’’ remarked Sir George. “ Last year the business placed in the shipbuilding yards was quite surprising under the then existing circumstances. As to the future I do not want to be a pessimist, but I am afraid I cannot bo a super-optimist. “ In respect to the acquisition of orders, our men could help us. 1 am of opinion that it is very much belter to have the whole of our men at work at reduced wages than part at high wages. The trade unions act on the opposite policy. Ten years of peace and we still have 1,000,000 unemployed. Why ? Because the trade unions have pursued this policy of higli wages and short hours. “Wo used t o build ships for the whole world. At present we are building for our own country and Norway, the only foreign country where one can now get orders. Whereas my firm used to build large numbers of ships in the past for Germany and France, the first-named country is now the second largest shipbuilding country in the world, and places no orders for ships here. Italy, who was pre-war quite negligible in shipbuildingj has got into the fourth place, and is building largely on her own account. The French are dependent upon subsidies and are not very flourishing. ADVANCE OF SWEDEN. “ The country that has gone most ahead in its shipbuilding is Sweden. The workmen there enjoy nigh wages as the result of payment by results and hard work. The yards—there are not many—are full of work, and we in England cannot touch them for coats, either for ships or engines. “ Speaking generally, shipbuilding has not been quite up to pre-war level in volume. Tlie total tonnage at present under construction throughout the world is 3,118,009, which, although much larger than the average for the last five years, is less by 195,090 tons than the average reached during the last 12 months before the war. “ Under our present system, our LOnO.OK) unemployed will never bo provided with work because these men, generally speaking, are unskilled men like labourers, or semi-skilled men like the miners. They are not trained craftsmen—that is, like the joiner, the plumber, and the bricklayer. There is really not so much unemployment anion'’- the skilled men. The unemployment problem will only be solved by these unskilled men being trained and generally absorbed into skilled industries. “By dilution? Yes, but this the ; trade unions object to. Low, too, as the miner s wages are, he rtr.n earn more tnan the skilled shipwright, whose wages are now 55s 6d weekly; on the other hand, the miner can average over the whole of the industry, including boys as well as men, his 10s 2d per shift, without taking into account the free house and free coals tl at he receives.’’ , . . r Sir George was warm in his praise oi the experimental Government establishments for the training of men, and noted that some excellent trainee* had been turned out after six months’ training. Ho is too, in favour of carefully thought-out emigration, and, indeed, he stressed the importance of it.