THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22053, 8 September 1933, Page 4

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES By J. T. Paul. What is important is that the choice Labour makes must obviously affect profoundly the whole character of political agitation in this country. If it follows Sir Stafford Cripps it will in the long years of preparation be talking dictatorship, constitutional crisis, forcible overthrow of interests and institutions, packing of the civil service, restriction of the latent powers of the Monarchy, and so on.—Manchester Guardian. AGREEMENT FOR LABOURERS. Complete agreement has been reached in Conciliation Council in the dispute between several Auckland employers and the Auckland Builders', General, and Other Labourers' Union. The employers asked for a 47 hours' week in lieu of 44 hours as stipulated under the old award, and for a wage of Is 6d an hour, compared with the present rate of Is TOd less 10 per cent. After discussion the 44 hours' week was rei tained and an agreement was arrived at for a wage of Is 7d an hour —a reduction of approximately 4 per cent, on present rateg. Clauses in respect to permanent work were struck out, all labour to be casual. Provision was made for boys and youths as follows-: —Under 17 years, 10s per week; 17 to 18, 15s; 18 to 19, 22s Cd; 19 to 20, 30s; 20 to 21, 37s 6d; 21 and over, adult rates. The workers concerned were those engaged in the lime, sand, and cement industry. CHANGES IN ENGLAND. Mr W. J. Jordan, Labour M.P. for Manakau, has returned to New Zealand from atrip to England. Interviewed on his arrival Mr Jordan said:— "A great change in the social spirit of Britain is taking place and New Zealand may have to reconsider many things, i Our trade may be interfered with by a quota policy. Empire trade is affected by the desire of creditors in Britain that debtor foreign; nations shall export to them. There is a demand for an improved standard of living to maintain trade. " Our policy of hardship and upsetting family life is discredited elsewhere. t Wage cuts are being restored in Britain and there ,is an effective demand for better treatment of the unemployed and . employed. Financial policies and monetary arrangements are being upset and changes must take place. "Our duty now is to see that our people # are cared for and family life maintained. If we do not do it, it certainly will not be done, or advocated, by the forces overseas which are affecting

MUNICIPAL LABOURERS. * After a long period of negotiation full agreement has been reached as to wages and working conditions under the Wellington Municipal Labourers' Award. The award itself was adopted in April for another period of 12 months or until superseded by another award or agreement, but since that date conditions have been discussed, and the result of these further conferences is that the old award is renewed without any reductions in wages and conditions (other than the 10 per cent, reduction imposed by the general order of 1931), while improved conditions have been agreed to for certain special, work. The new provisions include additional payment for men clearing. or repairing blocked sewers or drains, work inside boilers, flues, and combustion chambers, increase in rates of pay to men in.charge of refuse-disposal' tips and , collectors on night work, and additional rate for trenching or shaft-sinking:where over.eight feet in depth. There is a new clause as regards, meal allowance, and various provisions are made to meet special circumstances. The Reserves Department will observe the award.

UNEMPLOYED ORGANISATION. The first meeting of the newly-formed Provincial Council of the Southland Relief Workers' Organisation was held on Friday last in Invercargill.. Representatives from Gore, Bluff, Tuatapere, Winton, Otautau, Orepuki, Ohai, and Riverton were present. The election of office-bearers for the term resulted as follows:—Provincial president, Mr D. Strathern (Invercargill) ; vice-president, Mr Middlemiss (Gore).; provincial secretary, Mr P. Marchant (Invercargill). The nomination for national councillor to attend the conference in Wellington of relief workers' organisations affiliated to the National Union of Unemployed resulted in the election of Mr D. Strathern, being decided on the casting vote of the deputychairman (Mr Middlemiss). The president of the Invercargill Organisation, Mr P. Marchant, was the other nominee. The president stated that the expenses of the conference would be borne by the branches affiliated and would be on a pro rata basis. The Wellington delegate would pay the same amount as that of the delegate sent from Invercargill. The council recommended that a levy of 3d per member per month be made on the men to defray the running expenses of the council. Out of this amount Id per year per man would be paid to the National Council for affiliation fees, the remainder to be placed in a trust account.

The new five-day scheme instituted by the Southland County Council was fully discussed and it was the unanimous opinion that in view of short allocation, etc., the Provincial Council strongly oppose the introduction of this scheme into Southland.

CARPENTERS' WAGE RATES. The rates of pay in Victoria for carpenters employed on buildings for the quarter August 1 to November 1, 1933, fixed according to adjusted rates on the " all-items" table, and decreed by the Arbitration Court, will apply as follows: — Melbourne: 2s Id an hour, 16s 8d a ■day, £4 lis 8d a week. Geelong: 2s o|d an hour, 16s 6d a day, £4 10s 9d a week. Warrnambool: 2s 3d an hour, 18s a day, £4 19s a week. All other places: 2s an hour, 16s a day, £4 8s a week. Joiners in shops: £4 6s 3d a week. These adjustments do not apply under the State Wages Board determination, no alteration having been made up to date, and the rates fixed by the Carpenters' Board will still operate and apply to those not cited under the Federal award. A RISK TO DEMOCRACY. • There is, particularly among the younger generation, a certain impatience with democratic methods as slow, cumbersome, and inefficient, said Mr Arthur Henderson shortly before his election to the British House of Commons last week. I agree with them that the present machinery is in many ways antiquated, that it needs drastic overhauling. That must be one of our first tasks. But do not let them forget that the people who are telling them about the clumsiness and slowness of Parliaments are not out-to reform Parliament: they are out to destroy democracy. That means to destroy to 4, and so on, making a minimum number of 37 steps including two to the platform. DIVIDING A HERD. The executors followed this plan:—

Totals 175 in each case. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Inquirer."—There is no difference; it is merely a paradox. " R. C."—See this issue. " Alphabetical."—By using squared paper the solution given will be obvious. "Mark."—Thanks; both good. "T. W."—Just to hand; much obliged.

freedom —freedom of thought, freedom of speech, all freedom of expression or discussion. That means a grinding oppression for the masses, and a strangling of the life of the whole nation. If they should succeed in destroying democracy they would succeed in destroying Great Britain. So we have to fight against them. We have got to preserve those free institutions without which the big social change cannot in the long run be effected; without which it would be of small value. We have got to save democracy by democratic means; we have got to carry through our great fundamental reforms by democratic means.

THE WORKING WEEK. One of the very live questions, which promises to become more pressing with the passage of time, is the length of the working week. Dealing with the 40-hour week suggestion in a pamphlet entitled "Unemployment: Its Realities and Problems," the Engineering and Allied Employers' National Association of Britain says: — " The protagonists of the reduction of hours want to share the existing amount of employment, but they refuse to share wages; therefore, it is impossible without also increasing costs, which would diminish trade and therefore reduce employment. Other countries have not honoured the 48-hour agreement, hence it is difficult to believe they would honour the proposed 40-hour agreement. The 40-hour week is meant to counteract unemployment due to mechanisation. Mechanisation has not caused general unemp'oyment. -ind even if it had, such unemployment would have appeared gradually, because mechanisation is a gradual process. Our unemployment appeared suddenly." Writing in Headway, the journal of the League of Nations Union, Mr P. Malcolm Stewart, one of the managing directors of' the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers, made the following statements on ".the new spirit which more and more is actuating modern industry:—"For myself, I would support a 42 against a 44hour week, more especially because, with a 42-hour week, continuous processes involving shift work could be catered for by four shifts of 42 hours instead of three shifts of 56 hours, and would require an addition of one-third more workers." He then asks the question: "How are we to set to work? In the fir,st place, let the industrialists approach the trade unions and say to them, 'Will you co-operate with us in an effort to reduce the number of unemployed? Our proposal is to put more men into employment by shortening the hours of work. We want to negotiate with you as to how the cost incurred should be apportioned, and propose that to mitigate any sacrifice which the worker would bear in shouldering a share of the burden of reducing unemployment we should secure for him a share in the profits of industry and annually a'week's holiday with pay.' With regard to wages, my creed is that fair wages must come before interest on capital, and that when there are profits the workers should have a fair share in them."

RELIEF WORK ALLOWANCES. Following the conclusion of the conference between representatives of the Victorian State Ministry and the executive of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council to consider the possibilities of work for sustenance, the Minister for Sustenance (Mr K. Hughes) intimated that the Government had agreed to meet the Trades Hall requests in certain respects. The Trades Hall Council representatives suggested that all men struck off the sustenance lists for refusing work for sustenance be replaced immediately; that the Government discontinue calling men up for work during the time the conference is sitting; that the work per week to be provided be not less than two days for, single men and three. days for married men, with proportionate increase for children, with a minimum of six days for seven children and over. The Government was agreeable that all men struck off the sustenance lists for having refused work should be replaced as soon as the ban placed upon the works by the Trades Hall was lifted. The Government could not agree to two days' work, being given single men, and three days to married men, as had been _ suggested, owing to the cost involved in putting such a scheme into operation, but it proposed that a new scale should be. introduced to provide higher allowances for relief work. The scale offered by the Government was as follows: —

An extra 2s 6d is to be paid for each unemployed child under 16 years, but the total value of assistance will not exceed 42s 6d a week. The concessions offered by the Government were discussed at a meeting of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, and the action of the executive advising thejpen to accept the new rates was endorsed by 31 votes to 19. The resolution submitted on behalf of the executive, and endorsed by the council, was as follows: — • "The executive is emphatically of the opinion that the Government's new rates for work for sustenance are quite > insufficient to supply the bare necessities of existence, but in view of the lack of finance to maintain the workers engaged in the struggle for the demand of two days per week for single men, three days for married men, and a proportion-' ate increase in the period of employment

for married men with greater responsibilities, the executive advises the men to accept the new rates; further, the executive be directed to continue the agitation by negotiations with the Government of other means considered necessary to bring about the attainment ); of at least the minimum demands made."

HOW THEY ARE IN RUSSIA. The writer of this article, Paul Winterton, lived in Soviet Russia for nearly a year in 1928-29, and speaks Russian fluently. He has just returned from a second visit to Moscow and the Ukraine. The article appeared in the New Clarion, the English Socialist weekly.

There is a story current in Moscow to-day of a worker who, replying by letter to a query from a friend abroad regarding his standard of life, wrote: " 1 am living like Lenin." His friend was considerably mystified, and when eventually he visited Moscow asked the Russian what exactly he had meant. " I meant that they don't feed me and they don't bury me," was the laconic reply. This story tickles the Russian's rather grim sense of humour. The average worker's family In Russia lives very simply, but there is no question of the wolf haunting the door. It always has plenty of tea and frequently enough sugar. The supply of other commodities fluctuates from week to week, and the family takes what it can get. Some days there is saited herring, or sausage, chicken and nee. Sometimes there is cheese, meat, kasha (groats), hard sweet biscuits and jam. Occasionally, as a special luxury, paterfamilias may run to a few hundred grammes of confectionery. ... , There is a marked lack of fruit and fresh vegetables, particularly out of season, so that the diet, while ample in quantity, is rather unbalanced. Iu short, eating is rather uninteresting unless one is hungry. The family's housing quarters are probably very cramped and even overcrowded. For instance, if the family consists of father, mother, and two children, it may only have one room (and the use of communal offices). On the other hand, if either parent happens to work with an organisation which has just built itself a new block of ■ flats, the family may be the proud tenant of a four-roomed apartment, complete with bathroom. Such flats, however, though they have been built in vast numbers, are in even greater demand than council houses in England and the waiting lists are enormous. On the other hand, if the accommodation is slight, so is the rent, and the familv only pays a few roubles (perhaps a fifteenth part of its income) for room, lighting, and heating. Clothing in Russia is usually of poor quality, often expensive and not always easy to obtain. Women's stockings make quite one of the most acceptable gifts, and if they happen to.be English stockings a Russian girl is wildly delighted with such a present. Shoes often have to be worn long after they really need soling and heeling. Frocks are usually of the cheapest material and there is little variety. In spite of all these difficulties, the family generally takes a great, pride in its appearance,

particularly in the evenings. As for amusements, the family goes fre-. quently to the kinema and theatre, because both father and mother are able to buy tickets at low rates through their work organisations. It is well supplied with books from the excellent public libraries. Cards and chess are popular diversions. and the young people play ping-pong and a game like net-ball in their clubs. Father probably smokes a great many "bad cigarettes. There is almost certain to be a wireless set in the flat, or at least radio "on tap." On the other hand, "home" means rather less to the family than it. does to us. In the evenings its members are often to be found, at debates, lectures, and study circles, discussing: problems of State with the greatest seriousness. Once in six days each parent, has a "free" day (I am assuming that both work, as is generally the case), but unfortunately husband and wife cannot,always arrange to have the same free day, so that it is not easy for them to take a " day out" together. They, never have any idea which day is Sunday (when, in any case, they are probably at work) and they do not dream of going to church. If you ask such people, as I did, whether they are more comfortably off now than in 1028 or 1925, they tell you quite frankly that their standard of life is lower now than it.was then, though better than a year ago, when the struggle for the success of the Five-Year Plan was at its height. ...'*' They admit that almost every kind of product is very scarce, that they have to waste a lot. of time in queues and that altogether life is very difficult. _ It is even possible to draw them into vigorous criticism of officials and administrators, or of the director of their factory or of the actions of public bodies. But if you criticise the Government, they are up in arms immediately in its defence. They explain that they know the reason "Why they are worse off, that Russia has been " saving up " by putting every copek into bricks and mortar and machinery, turning itself into an industrial country. They tell you that they have not lost hope and that one day in the dim distance, Eussia will be a rich country.

ABC D E F G 12 3 4 5 G 7 8 9 10 ]1 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 ]9 20 21 27 28 24 22 26 23 25 33 31 34 35 30 32 29 42 41 40 39 38 37 30 49 48 47 40 45 44 43

Family Unit. O m • o m P.JS "-g«j 3 P Art W« in « Single man .. 6/Man and wife 9/Man, wife, 1 child 22/6 15/6 11/6 Man, wife, 2 children 25/-. 18/-. 14/Man, wife, 3 children 27/6 ■ 20/6 16/6 Man, wife, 4 children 19/Man, wife, 5 children 32/6 25/6 ■21/6 Man, wife, 6 children 24/Man, wife, 7 children 37/6 30/6 26/6 Man, wife, 8 children and over .. .. 33/29/-