INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23528, 17 June 1938, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES

By J. T. Paul

The incentives to progress are the desires inherent in human nature —the desire to gratify the wants of the animal nature, the wants of the intellectual nature, and the wants of the sympathetic nature: the desire to be. to know, and to do, desires that short of infinity can' never be satisfied, as they grow by what they feed on.—Henry George. UNION RESPONSIBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES incorporation of labour unions or some other method by which worker responsibility can be establisnee is being increasingly demanded in America to-day (remarks the Christian Science Monitor). Likewise, a fear has grown up that employers may have no redress if the National Labour Relations Board rules against them. Some reassurance on both points is con tained in the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago, overturning a Labour Board ruling The court holds that workers who struck in violation of a contract requiring rbitration forfeited their positions as employees and their rights to reinstatement. If the courts follow this rule, unions will find that under the law even as it now stands they must honour responsibilities if they are to enjoy rights. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CON FERENCE Government employer and Labour delegates from most of 60 nations hav ing membership in the International Labour Organisation are now assembled in Geneva for the twenty fourth Session of the Internationa) Laboui Conference. Six items are listed on the agenda of the session They are: 1. Technical ana vocational educa tion and apprenticeship. 2. Regulation of contracts of employment of indigenous workers; 3. Recruiting, placing and conditions of labour (equality of treatment) of migrant workers. 4. Regulations ol hours of work and rest periods of professional drivers (and their assistants) of vehicles en gaged in road transport. 5. Generalisation of the reduction of hours of work. 6. Statistics of hours and wages m the principal mining and manufacturing industries, including building and construction, and in agriculture. The first five items come up for preliminary discussion this year. Final action on them will not be taken until 1939. But this year’s conference will be called upon to consider the form of regulation to be adopted in each case, and to draw up points for a questionnaire on each. In connection with the last item on the agenda, the conference will consider the advisability of adopting international regulations governing the compiling of statistics relating to wages and hours of work in various industries and communicate the information to the International Labour Office as soon as possible. Besides the six items on the agenda, the conference will consider various other matters, including the annual report of the director, annual reports on the application of International Labour Conventions, and questions of standing orders and procedure. PUBLIC SERVICE ARBITRATOR Public servants throughout New South Wales are reported by the Australian Worker to be up in arms against the proposal to appoint a public service arbitrator to undertake all awardmaking functions of industrial tribunals in respect of Crown employees. The Government proposes to follow the Federal plan of having service awards determined by a special arbitrator. At present, public servants throughout New South Wales work under awards made by the Industrial Commission. The president of the New South Wales Public Service Association said that the proposal was redolent of the legislative actions of Mr Bavin in 1922 and Mr Bruce in 1929, when each laid the axe at the root of some of the cherished industrial rights of employees. What could a Governmentappointed arbitrator do which the Industrial Commission could not do? Why should public servants be singled out to be classed as "industrial untouchables ”? The Premier (Mr Stevens) said that the proposal to appoint a public service arbitrator to make awards for Crown employees would not alter their existing rights and obligations. The Government at no time had considered any interference with the rights of Crown employees to have their remuneration and other conditions of employment determined by industrial tribunals. The present proposal was merely that the hearing of claims affecing Crown employees should take place before a special arbitration tribunal with an arbitrator who had the same status as a judge of the Industrial Commission. The proposal was designed to help to relieve the congestion in the Industrial Commission COAL AND POWER The popular belief that water power is fast supplanting coal as the world’s chief source of energy supply is completely discredited by International Labour Office statistics compiled for the World Coal Conference which opened in Geneva last month The statistics show that while in 1935 coal and lignite supplied only 60.3 per cent of the world's energy requirements, as compared with 74.1 per cent, in 1913 the percentage sup plied by water power was only 6 6 as compared with 2.4 in 1913. Oil was coal’s chief competito.-. U supplied 16.5 per cent of the world’s energy output in 1935 as compared with 4.5 in 1913. Next came firewood with 12.8 per cent in 1935, as com pared with 17.6 per cent in 1913, then natural gas. with 3.8 pei cent in 1935 as compared with 1.4 per cent, in 1913 Thus, in 1935 coal and lignite provided three times as much energy as oil and natural gas together; nearly five times as much as firewood, and nearly 10 times as a? water power The statistics show that m 193 b coal contributed somewhat less than threefifths of the total supply of energy available for consumption in the United Slates. Bituminous coal alone was responsible for nearly half of the total, anthracite for from 6 to 7 per rent There, as in the world at large, coal has been losing ground relatively to othei sources of power supply. While at the- turn ol the century it was yielding nine-tenths of the nation's energy supply, in 1913 it yielded only four-fifth? and in 1936 'cs? than three-fifths

In Germain and Great Britain, on the contrary, coal still provides ninetenths or more of the national energy requirements In 1934. 88.8 per cent, of Germany’s and 93.9 per cent, of Great Britain’s consumption of energy were derived from raw and processed coal The trend to oil and water power in both these countries was much more moderate than m 'he United States

The Soviet Union despite its richness in wood. peal, mineral oils, and water power is one of the few countries where coal is coming to occupy a target place in the national fuel economy the statistics show Coal today provides well over 70 poi cent, of the energy requirements of that country as compared with f>3 per cent, in the pre-war clays; and this rise has taken place to the accompaniment of a considerable expansion in 'he total energy supply

UNIONS AND DEFENCE At a meeting of the Interstate Executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, held at Melbourne, it was decided to reject the invitation of the FoderaJ Government to co-oper-ate in the Government’s defence plans. The view taken by the A.C.T.U. was that the proposals put forward by the Government would lead to industrial conscription. The A.C.T.U realised the necessity for the adequate defence of Australia against invasion, and it was decided that if further proposals on the question of co-operation were submitted

they would be circulated to each branch of the executive for opinion, and the branches would be asked whether it would be advisable to call a Commonwealth conference representing the six States Trades and Labour Councils. It was resolved that each State Trades and Labour Council should call a conference of representatives of all bona fide unions on July 2 to consider the executive's decision and any further developments. In inviting the unions to form an advisory panel on defence, the Prime Minister asked the co-operation of the unions on the following matters in the preparation of its defence plans:— (1) Labour conditions in defence factories and .other establishments in the event of their being placed on a war footing; (2) labour conditions in private factories when placed on a war footing: and (3) a survey of manpower and a plan for its allotment to ensure that key men were maintained in war factories and other essential industries.