THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22723, 8 November 1935, Page 3

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES

By J. T. Paul.

No doubt it is inconvenient if I find myself left after eight o’clock without any large choice of cigarettes. But my liberty to buy them at any hour of the day or night is the shopkeeper’s slavery. More and more society involves surrender, on the part of all of us, of small rights for the sake of the comfort and happiness of others —just ns others surrender small rights for our comfort and happiness.—“Artifex ’’ in the Manchester Guardian. LABOUR ON FARMS. Further discussion took place at the last meeting of the Manawatu Executive of the Farmers’ Union on the question of farm labour and the conditions under which young men and boys were asked to work. Mr H. J. M'Leavey (Ohau) said he thought inspections should be made of the conditions under which the men had to work. Living conditions, hours, and remuneration should he more closely supervised. Ho knew of several instances where boys were working under conditions he certainly would not permit a son of his own to work under. While fanners allowed such conditions to persist, they were largely to blame for the shortage of labour. He thought payment at an hourly rate would have to be introduced. When that was done farm workers might get a rest in the middle of the day, instead of working as slaves and worse. Mr N. Campbell expressed the opinion that the cases of mistreatment were isolated, and in the majority of cases the boys were taken in as members of the family. There was an inevitable drudgery about farm work. Mr E. G. Beard said that if a carpenter could get 2s 3d an hour an accomplished farm hand should get at least as much; his skill was no less. That farmers were unable to pay their men a wage commensurate with the hours worked was the general opinion of the meeting. TRAMWAY WORKERS’ WAGES. The recent decision of the Auckland Transport Board to restore wages to the 1931 level is now in operation. Commenting on the position, the manager (Mr A. E. Ford) emphasised how the board had been influenced in what it had been able to do by the volume of the revenue of the undertaking, which had been very substantially reduced during the depression.

Mr Ford said the board had on its staff n total of 1058 permanent employees. Of this number 76 were in tho perman ent way department, 80 in the distribution department, 230 in the car sheds and workshops, 658 in the traffic department, and 74 on the clerical and general office staff. The extent of the organisation was not always appreciated. The wages bid of the undertaking last year, for instance, was no less than £200,500. The revenue earned was £523,000, and tho miles run were 5,878,036. The passengers carried numbered 44,809,697, which meant that Auckland’s entire population was carried more than 200 time's in a year. Mr Ford added that, with regard to the general staff, the rates of wages varied from Is lOd to 2s lid an hour, witn time and a-half for all work beyond eight hours a day. Some skilled artisans received 2s 6d an hour. The hourly rates now being paid by the board equalled, or were in excess of those paid prior to 1931, when the first wages .reductions wera applied. The board had restored 50 per cent, of the 10 per cent, cut last February, and thp restoration of the balance would involve a considerable sum. Mr Ford drew attention to the recent statement of tho chairman of the board (Mr 11. G. 11. Mason, M.P.), that it was a source of satisfaction to the board, which would strive to satisfy all reasonable claims for better fare*? and good wages, that it had been paying the men employed on its trams an hourly rate believed to be the highest ever paid in a tramway system in New Zealand. A schedule of the hourly rates paid by the board to its employees shows that the 1931 rates have been attained. There is an improvement in the case of the traffic department, the rates being:—l93s conductors, first 12 months. Is lOJd; after 12 months, Is 11 Id: motormen, first 12 months. Is Hid; after 12 months, 2s Old. An additional penny is paid when broken shift duty is worked. 1931: Conductors first three months. Is 9d; next nine months. Is lOd; after 12 months, le lid; motormen. first 12 months, Is lid; after 12 months, 2s. A LABOUR PIONEER. Under this heading in the Auckland Star “Industrial Tramp,” in his “Labour Notes,” has the following regarding the visit of Mr J. C. Watson, who is now on a health trip to the Dominion;— “My mind was carried back nearly 30 years when-the Hon. John Christian Watson was the foremost figure in the Labour world of the Australian Commonwealth, being its Federal Prime Minister and Treasurer in 1904, following on after Andrew Fisher, the first Labour Prime Minister of the Commonwealth. I had met Mr Watson shortly, after he went out of office during one of his visits to New Zealand and notwithstanding the fact that he is now convalescing after a serious operation, I could not help thinking that time had dealt kindly with him, despite his 68 years of a strenuous life in polities and in commercial life. Mr Watson was born at Valparaiso, Chile, and coming to New Zealand at a very early age he received his education at an Oamaru public school. He began life as a compositor, and going to Australia, in time became president of the Sydney Trades and Labour Council. He entered the New South Wales Parliament as M.L.A. for Young in 1894 and retained the seat till 1001 when he was elected to the Federal Parliament (1901-1910), taking up the portfolios of Prime Minister and Treasurer in 1904. He left politics to devote all his attention to floating a Labour daily paper for the party. He met with huge difficulties in the way of obtaining the necessary capital for such a big venture. Just as he was within measurable distance of success, the Great War broke out and hie project had to be suspended and Mr Watson want into commercial life. This trip is a leisurely tour through the Dominion, accompanied by Mrs Watson, to take advantage of the health-giving climate of New Zealand. It may be mentioned that Mr Watson preceded the Hon. W. M. Hughee as Federal Prime Minister by nine years.” MARRIED WOMEN WORKERS. War has broken out among women workers. All over the country meetings are being' held to discuss the effects which are likely to follow the action of the London County Council in lifting the ban on married women teachers.

The Sunday Chronicle learns that hundreds of thousands of single women, entirely dependent on their jobs, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any extension of the scheme.

Already the L.C.G. decision, which was hailed as a victory for women, has become a challenge in a bitter “ civil war '* among women. “We are most emphatically opposed to married women being employed and standing in the way of single women’s promotion. We shall fight tooth and nail to resist any attempt to make the employ ment of married women a permanent thing.” said an official of the Post Office Workers’ Union. The Civil Servants’ Clerical Associa tion is equally determined to fight against any lifting of the ban on married women.

“A ballot was taken a few years ago on this question, and by a heavy majority our members voted against married women being allowed to retain their posts,” said an official of the union.

“ There has been nothing to change that view. Promotion on the women’s side is more or less dependent on resignations, and our members would strenuously oppose anything which would make promotion prospects even more remote.”

The chief protagonists of married women are the National Union of Women Teachers, whose secretary, Miss E. C. Frond, informed the Sunday Chronicle that that organisation has always been emphatically in favour of no ban being placed upon the married. “ Opposition in our ranks comes from youngsters at college who think that the employment of married women as teachers may reduce or destroy their chances of getting a job. But when it is pointed out to them that they may be in the same boat themselves later they admit that we are right. “ These married women teachers have

been trained at a great expense, both to themselves and to the State, and it is bad economy to dismiss them because they get married.” “ Women are by no means unanimous on the point of married women keeping their jobs,” said Mr Stephen W. Smith, secretary of the National Federation of Professional • Workers. “They may agree on principle, but they disagree on examples in many cases.” Meanwhile, the fight is to go on. Single women are determined that their right to work shall not be jeopardised. TIJADE UNIONISM IN INDIA. A conference of representatives of the Indian National Trades Union Federation and of the All India Trade Union Congress was held in Bombay recently to consider various proposals that had been put forward from time to time tor bringing about unity of action between the two organisations. The proceedings, opened by Mr N. M. Joshi, were private, but at the end of the meeting a statement was published of the various resolutions adopted, which were described as . the greatest -common measure of agreement reached. The main resolution referred to the

i increasing indications among all sections of the Labour movement of readiness to co-operate with one another and the decision of the conference to establish an All-India Joint Labour Board, consisting of an equal number of representatives of the two organisations, to act as a coordinating agency, chiefly by such methods as the organisation of Labour weeks in different parts-of the country or of May Day celebrations and other efforts calculated to draw attention to the require- i merits of the workers. Other resolutions emphasised the need to take steps to combat methods of rationalisation result- I ing in wage cuts and retrenchment, sug- , gested an inquiry into the condition of 1 workers in industries receiving protection with a view to ascertaining the possibilities of extending the benefits of such concessions to the workers concerned and urged the introduction of minimum wagefixing machinery, unemployment relief, social insurance, a 40-hour week, and also an industrial council as recommended by the Royal Commission on Labour in India.