THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21733, 26 August 1932, Page 16

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES By J. T. Paul. « The anxiety not to cheat should bo. greater than the anxiety not to be cheated. This means that there must be a transparently honest, square deal between man and man.—Mr Ben W. Veysey. BRITISH BUILDERS’ WORKING HOURS. A determined movement for drastic reduction of hours in the building trade in Great Britain seems likely (says an exchange). According to a recent return over 380,000 are unemployed in the in dustry. As the total number of insured persons in the industry is 858,000, the unemployed represent about 45 per cenl. After making allowances for seasonal changes, there is sufficient building labour available to enable the working week to be reduced to 33 hours. That would mean a cut of one-quarter. The existing national agreement provides for a 44-hour wepk, and in certain circumstances more hours may be worked. While much of the present unemployed total is due to the general depression, machinery and new methods of construction have also had a very great effect, which is increasing. Buildings that, a few years ago, would have taken two years to complete are now,finished in a tew months. Closer organisation of the work—by such methods as the “time and progress schedule ” —cuts out an enormous amount of waste time. PARTNERS IN INDUSTRY. “ H°'y ffiuny - employers realise the awful feeling of insecurity of the average employee, faced as he is with responsibilities at home and with little or no reserve to carry on with, never, knowing when short time may be announced, or whoj) the laying-off of a shift may leave him indefinitely without work? ” said Mr C. Percy Lister, managing director of R. A. Lister and Co., Ltd., of Dursley, at a week-end conference organised by the Industrial Co-partnership Association, reports the Edinburgh Dispatch. How many employers realise the awful monotony of the average task, performed often day in and day out for years on end? “ How many employers realise the importance of providing facilities for medical and dental treatment, for which there is now an enormous demand ? a is a double-sided affair. The employee, too, must play' hiS ( part in making it a success. “ H the workers could understand the meaning of the monetary restrictions now in force in so many of the markets of the world the effect of bad or indifferent workmanship or inspection on the repute of the product they are making, the tremendous gamble with which the average trader is now confronted if he desires to do business at all, the influences of exchange and tariffs on selling prices, the high cost of securing business, the importance of strict economy, they, too, would have ample food for reflection.” RUSSIAN LABOUR SUPPLY. The SoViet labour recruiting and trade union organisations have sent special squads to South Russia and the Ukraine for the purpose of intercepting industrial deserters at the raihvay junctions, where they gather in thousands on their way to their native villages. The Commissariat of the Heavy Industry state that the movement of workers from the factories toward the villages, which is an annual feature of the harvesting season, began this year unusually early, and has assumed unusual proportions. It is explained that this is largely due to irregularity in the supply of foodstuffs and to intolerable housing conditions. The metal works in the Ukraine have already lost more than 20,000 employees, among them a high proportion of their permanent skilled workers. More than 30 per cent of the seasonal workers of the building enterprises in European Russia have deserted in the course of a few weeks. During the spring the Moscow authorities engaged 79,000 peasants for house building, but 77,000 melted away before the end of June, By means of special recruiting measures the outward flow of miners from the Don Basin has hitherto been compensated, but, although the number of hands since January has been approximately constant at about 440,000, the output of coal, the average of which had been 141,000 tons a day in January, has been only 111,000 since the end of June. This is about the same as in June, 1931, although the number of miners has increased by 80,000, much machinery has been installed, and 40 new pits opened.

HOURS OF WORK AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

The question whether and, if so, under what conditions a reduction in hours of work would tend to ease the unemployment situation continues to occupy much attention in the world of industry. While employers and workers generally and in most countries take opposite views on the question, there are some signs—notably in Italy—that opinion in industrial circles, both among employers and workers, is being gradually focussed on the possibility of relieving the present situation by this method. At its last session the International Labour Conference passed a resolution commending a reduction in hours of work and condemning a reduction in wages. By means of a shortening of hours, the resolution affirmed, ■ production could be adjusted to consumption, available work could be distributed over a large number of persons, and the unemployed could be reabsorbed into employment. The International Labour Office, it was urged, should investigate the question of the establishment of a 40-hour week in all industrial countries by international agreement. This resolution, which was submitted by representatives of the workers, was opposed by representatives of employers and of certain Governments, chiefly on the ground that a reduction in hours of work would increase the cost of production and so defeat its own object. It was adopted only by a small majority —48 votes to 37.

Since then, the controversy has proceeded vigorously, by speeches, resolutions, and articles in the press. In the latest issue of its official organ, for example, will be found a report of a recent discussion in the Italian National Council of Corporations, leading to the adoption—with the support both of workers’ and of employers’ representatives —of a resolution in which the council " faced with the problems of unemployment and the need to give occupation <( to a larger number of workers,” called for “ a prompt examination of the possibility of a compulsory reduction of hours of work to 40 in the week ... in order that precise international agreements may be concluded. A further pronouncement on, the subject has been made by Mr Giovanni Agnelli, head of the F.I.A.T, undertaking. In an interview given for the press or tire United States, Mr Agnelli laid stress on the increased capacity of modern industry for production, and advocated a 36-hour week without diminution of wages. This measure, he said, should be carried out by international action. “ There is a precedent —the Eight Hour Convention. Why should it not be possible to have a 36-hour or 32-hour convention, including a provision for the increase of wages P er hour? ” GERMAN TRADE UNIONS’ PROGRAMME. The German General Federation .of Trade Unions and the General Federation of Salaried Employees, in conjunction with a number of sociologists, have recently published a programme with the object of avoiding social catastrophes of the magnitude of the present economic crisis. After referring to the necessity for transform' ing the existing economic system into a planned system of collective economy based upon human needs, the programme urges that society as a whole should acquire executive powers over the means of production. In view of the general situation in Germany at the moment the programme is of unusual interest. To avoid economic crisis and promote economic progress it is necessary, states the programme, in view of the increasing productivity of human labour, to ensure a systematic increase of mass purchasing power and the regulation of capital issues and the use of capital. With the increasing productivity oi labour, working hours should be shortened. The 40-hour working week should immediately be introduced by law, and for the time being ought to be regarded as the maximum permissible.

To mitigate fluctuations in production, the Federal, State, and municipal authorities and other public bodies must keep available sufficient financial means for public works and orders during periods of depression. Those bodies, which bear the risk of social insurance should be able during boom periods to set aside reserves which should be utilised in periods of depression to prevent a decline in purchasing power. A demand is made for the immediate nationalisation of the entire mining industry, including auxiliary industries, the iron and steel industry, the large-scale chemical industry, particularly the manufacture of artificial manures, and the monopolised branches of the manufacture of building materials, particularly the cement industry. The programme also calls for the transfer of power undertakings to public ownership, with the object of improving and cheapening output, and the supervision of all cartels and similar combines ag well as multiple concerns and separate undertakings by a State cartels and monopolies board.

Private banking should be supplanted by a State-controlled banking system with the function of planned distribution of credit and capital. Existing banks am* other credit institutions, and insurance corporations, particularly life assurance, should be nationalised.

The task of organising a planned distribution of credit must be carried out by a central banking organisation which should supervise the movement of credit and draw up regulations to govern the investment policy of credit institutions. The programme calls for the establishment of a fair equilibrium between town and countryside. It is particularly emphasised that the subsidising of largescale agricultural undertakings must cease, and that large estates should be transferred to collective ownership. The programme aims at:— 1. The curtailment of restrictions on trade. 2. The restoration of an international monetary and credit basis; and 3. The close co-ordination of all available economic forces in Europe. Finally, the programme advocates the establishment of a centra! organisation for economic planning, which should work in close cpllaboration with the banking organisation, the cartels and monopolies board and the machinery established for commerce and the control of public collective economy. The expansion of planned economy should be linked up with the extension of economic democracy.