INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23505, 20 May 1938, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES

By J. T. Paul

The essential character of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed W, E. H. Locky.

APPRENTICESHIP DIFFICULTIES

Some remarks regarding the training of apprentices made by the director of the Wellington Technical College at the annual conference ot the Tecnnical School Teachers’ Association Conference have been made the subject of a statement issued by the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation. The federation stales;-

“It is greatly to be regretted that Mi R. G. Ridling, direcloi of the Wellington Technical ollege, in the course of pressing the annual conference of the Technical School Tcacners’ Association to adopt his scheme for the training of apprentices, should have resorted to the remark, ‘ The apprenticeship system is a means of increasing profits,’ while his allegation that industry is incapable of training its own apprentices is definitely misrepresentation. Admittedly, industry is unduly handicapped in its training of apprentices by the present unsuitable legislation, but it is only necessary to have that legislation properly amended in order to rectify the position. “ The question is made complex by divergent considerations which are immediately apparent to those with a knowledge of the practical aspects of the matter, although it may, to a school teacher, appear so simple that he would dismiss it in a few words. The manufacturers of the Dominion realise that the paramount interest to be safeguarded is the welfare of the industry as a whole, and that other matters must accordingly take second place. “ With a practical knowledge of the position, they have over a long period given very serious consideration to the question of apprenticeship. An outstanding difficulty is that the requirements of every industry vary, and a blanket theoretical solution which does not allow for this factor is hopelessly inadequate While there is a very general appreciation of the excellent work done by technical colleges in general, and Mr Ridling’s own institution in particular, we have yet to be convinced that the passing of a regulation compelling attendance at a technical school will oring about the immediate result of perfect training. The technical school has never been, and never will be, a real substitute for practical training in the shops, but it can be made an excellent subsidiary.” AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN’S UNION Plans for preventing sectional shipping stoppages and for ending minority control of the Seamen’s Union were adopted at the usual stop-work meeting of the union at Sydney recently. A series A recommendations to give effect to these plans by alterations_ to the rules and constitution of the union were approved. Members agreed that, in future, all such questions as stoppages mur t be decided by members of the union throughout Australia. The meeting also decided to appeal against the registration as an Industrial Union of the Australian Seamen s Federation. It was asserted that the federation was a bogus organisation, with hardly any membership, whereas the Seamen’s Union represented over 90 per cent, of working seamen. Protests against the registration as an Industrial Union of the Australian Seamen’s Federation were also carried at stop-work meetings of the Seamen s Union in other Slates. SHORTAGE OF APPRENTICES IN GERMANY In spite of all propaganda and all the methods of compulsion used to force people into, specific occupations (says a Labour exchange), there is a serious shortage of apprentices in Germany. In 1937 about 500,000 boys left school, and an attempt was made by means of a questionnaire to find out which trades they wished to enter. About 50 per cent, chose engineering occupations, but for these 250,000 apprentices there were only 127,000 vacancies available. In agriculture the situation is even worse. The four-year period of agricultural apprenticeship was certainly introduced with great pomp, and training centres were set up, but a statement made on February 8 last admitted that only 7000 young workers were trained in more than 3,500.000 agricultural undertakings, while there were 250,000 young workers available for training. Out of the Arts leaving schools 185,000 applied for a commercial training, but there were only 60,000 vacancies, the supply thus being only a-third of the demand. On instructions from above, propaganda in schools was concentrated on getting girls to take up domestic service, but here also, although 107,000 girls reported, only about 16,000, or about one-seventh, obtained a position. YOUTH TRAINING FOR TRADES Approval of the apprenticeship section of the New South Wales State Government’s youth training scheme has been given by the Full Bench of the Federal Arbitration Court. As a result of the Court’s judgement, awards for the timber, textile, clothing, printing. and coach and motor body building industries will be varied to allow employers to engage apprentices aged between 19 and 25 years The application was opposed by the Unions concerned on the main ground that apprenticeship of young men would prevent the ipprenticeship of boys of normal age. Union representatives contended that the industries wece already carrying their full quota of apprentices and that the New South Wales State Government’s youth employment scheme was merely an attempt to obtain cheap labour. _ Chief Justice Dethridge said that the court appreciated the desire ox the unions to prevent youths being placed in industry without assurance of their future, but thought that the fears of the unions were groundless, and that unemployed youths would be helped The plan might not have as wide an effect as was hoped, but the court thought it would assist some of those who needed help. The scheme would not be permanent, and would operate only until the end of the year. The quota of apprentices in any industry would not be altered by the variations to be made to the award. BASHER GANG BRUTALITY Under this heading the Australian Worker comments on a new development in Labour politics in New South Wales:— “ Sudh is the anti cowards Fascist policy and outlook in that section of (he Labour Movement in New South Wales under the control of the inner group executive, that no criticism - of the Lang dictatorship or the inner group gangsters is tolerated at conferences stage-managed by Dictator Lang’s political heelers. “Any delegate attempting to voice such criticism is immediately pounced upon and subjected to brutal treatment bv basher gang thugs and bullies. “At the recent Easter Conference at Sydney two trade union delegates thought (hey were entitled to voice some plain facts about the disastrous results of the Lang dictatorship and the semi-Fascist inner group control '>f the Labour Movement in New South Wales One. delegate was promptly throwi" oul of the conference, and kicked and punched. The other was kicked down some stairs, bundled into the street, knocked down, and booted about the body bv the basher gang bullies.

“ It is getting down 't a very ugly level when delegates cannot attend a Labour Conference without running the risk of being bashed and manhandled in approved Fascist fashion by inner group ruffians Following a protest against the cowardly and unprovoked assaults on the union delegates, the inner group executive demand all knowledge of the use of basher gang tactics Pretending to be horrified at the very suggestion that such an exhibition of hooliganism

should take place at a bang faction gathering, the inner group gangsters even agreed to appoint a sub-com-mittee, presided over by Dictator Lang himself, to “ investigate the alleged assaults made on certain delegates.’ - The statement made by the inner group secretary (Mr Graves), that “ if the culprits are found they will be nromptly punished,” will deceive nobody acquainted with the roughhouse methods resorted to in an effort to maintain a grip on the Labour Movement in New South Wales, And it is pretty safe betting that the sub-com-mittee will report back that it could find no evidence to sustain the charges made

•• It is a weil-knowr fact that there does exist in Sydney' a gang of hooligan ' muscle men,” whose job it Is to

bash and bang anybody out of step with the inner group and their Fascist ideals.

"The gangster element which has fastened on to the Labour Movement in New South Wales, is not only wrecking Labour in the State, but is discrediting the name of Labour through out the Commonwealth.

' As part of the campaign to clean up the Labour Movement in New South Wales, the Unity Conference which is to meet in Sydney next month should see to it that the crooks, gangsters', thugs, and bullies who have brought Labour to its present sorry level are driven out of the movement, they disgrace.’'