INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23830, 9 June 1939, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES By J. T. Paul For one man to do good to another is good for both. For one man to do ill to another is bad for both. —Indian proverb. FARMERS’ ORGANISATION For some time and in various centres there have been discussions on this question. Better organisation of farming interest in New Zealand is urged by the Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union (Mr A. P. O’Shea) in an address to the Hawke’s Bay provincial conference of the union. Mr O’Shea, who is prominent in university Rugby circles, used football metaphors in making his points. “We have got to get out scrum packed properly with everyone pushing,” he said. “At present we have too many wing-forwards and we have too many sideline coaches who won’t come out and do anything themselves, but who will give plenty of advice.’’ Mr O'Shea urged upon the conference the need for unity among farming interests. “I am convinced,” he said, “that eventually we shall have to reorganise the union and reconstruct it on the lines of the National Farmers’ Union of Great Britain and the Primary Producers’ Association of Western Australia. These organisations have various sections —sheep dairying, poultry, agriculture—which deal with matters affecting the particular industry, while a general council deals with general policy matters and with things which affect all primary pr^kucers. There is no reason why all interests affecting the primary producers of this •country should not combine and get one big union. At no time in our history was unity more essental. All other sections of the community are getting together and are tightening up their organisations. Every farmer in New Zealand should get into one big union and exert his influence to help to better the lot of the farmer.” MINIMUM WAGE SURVEY In view of the succession of changes and new developments in the field of minimum wage regulation, and in answer to a felt need for current Information in this regard, the International Labour Office has undertaken to publish a comprehensive international survey of the experience of all countries having such legislation. Volume 1 of this survey, which has just appeared under the title of “The Minimum Wage: An International Survey" (price ss), includes a series of monographs covering nine countries— Australia. Belgium, Czechoslovakia. France. Great Britain. Ireland. New Zealand. Peru and the United States The major part of each of these national monographs consists of a summary description of the development and present state of minimum wage legislation and its application in the country concerned. Wherever available. Information has permitted, this description has been supplemented by a brief account of certain of the major problems encountered and results achieved by wage legislation. Finally, to facilitate more detailed study of the experience of particular countries, detailed reference lists are given for each country as well as an international reference list at the end of the volume. The study is intended to be of particular interest to all who have to consider the advisability of establishing, modifying or extending any system of wage regulatidn. CHILD LABOUR IN VICTORIA The deputy leader of the Victorian State Parliamentary Labour Party (Mr Cremean) declared recently that the State’s gravest industrial problem was the wrecking of both the souls and physical constitutions of girls df legallv employable age in industries from which they should be excluded altogether. Hundreds of , girls were employed in ironworks, and, as soon as they entered that employment they were doomed to a premature old age. They lasted until they were aged about 18 years, and then they were scrapped Because of the environment of their employment, their spirits were then as calloused as their hands. The president of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, Mr D. Lovegrove, says that from 1929 to 1937 the number of factory operatives in; Victoria had increased 25 per cent., but the number of children aged up to 16 years employed in factories had increased by 50 per cent. The State Premier (Mr Dunstan) has promised to take up vyith the departments concerned allegations of the exploitation of child labour. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION The International Labour Conference was scheduled to open at Geneva yesterday. At the eighty-seventh session of the governing body Mr John G. Winant, the director of the 1.L.0., who returned recently :rom the United States, said that he had a favourable impression of the preparations for the Labour conference of countries of America, which it Is planned to hold at Havana next November. He also informed the governing body of the direct contacts he had had with the Governments of Great Britain, France and the United States, which had renewed the full assurance of the active and close collaboration of their respective countries with the 1.L.0. under all circumstances. It was noted with lively satisfaction that Hungary and Peru remained members of the International Labour Organisation, although leaving the League of Nations. Mr Leggett, British Government representative, stated, in this connection, that while regretting the withdrawal of Hungary and Peru from the League of Nations, he was greatly pleased with their decision to remain in the organisation, which thus retained its character of universality, which is one of the strongest factors in the efficiency of its activities. Mr Oersted (Denmark) endorsed Mr Leggett’s remarks in the name of the employers' group. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL REGISTER According to the cablegram published on Tuesday from Melbourne that 500 representatives of union executives at the Trades Hall pledged themselves to go to gaol or be fined rather than apply for forms to register under the National Register Act. indicates an intensity of feeling against its compulsory provisions. To organise a boycott against registration, it was decided to call upon unionists to refuse to apply for ”orms or to register under the Act. At the Federal conferenc- ot the Amalgamated Engineering Union, held at Melbourne recently it was decided to urge combined action by all unionists in Australia in opposing the introducton of a national register of manpower. The conference resolved t 0 ask the Auslralan Council of Trade Unions to convene a meeting of its full Interstate Executive to declare a policy on behalf of the Trade Union Movement. It was declared that a national register would be the first step towards industrial conscription The Federal Council of the Ironworkers’ Union meeting in Melbourne, declared that the decision of the Federal Ministry to introduce a compulsory national register was a step towards conscription, and the union could not give it any support. The council instructed the Federal officers and all branches to take steps to defeat the proposal and to call upon members of the union to refuse to be “card indexed” in this manner. It declared that there could be no support for the so-called defence programme of the present Federal Ministry. because the union was opoosed entirely to the features of the programme such as compulsory military training conscription and a standing army. At a meeting of the Interstate Executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, also held at Melbourne, it was decided to launch a national campaign of protest and opposition against the introduction of a compulsory national register. The executive

also decided that, if a national register was introduced, it would organise a mass boycott to prevent the fillingin of the forms. The boycott would be organised on a collective basis by trade unions, shop committees, and mass meetings, Federal conferences of unions in key industries are to be convened immediately to implement the executive’s decision and to consider such other action as might be deemed necessary. Members of the executive said they were convinced that the register would inevitably lead to the conscription of the workers of the Commonwealth, both for industrial and military purposes under conditions imposed by regulations from the Governmenl or departmental Ministers. It was agreed that the Labour Councils. working under the direction of the A.C.T.U.. should be responsible for the campaign in each State: that the trade unions should seek the cooperation of the A.L.P. in the campaign against the proposal: that meetings and demonstrations should be held to demand the withdrawal of the measure: and that protests should be sent to the Federal Ministry and all members of the Federal Parliament. The Federal Prime Minister Mr Menzies has stated that when Parliament had passed the compulsory register legislation the Government would take all the steps necessary to see that the law was enforced. The Minister of Defence, Mr Street, declared that the register would not be used to further a policy of military conscription, but the information secured would be used only in an emergency.