VALUE OF WAGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26704, 25 February 1948, Page 7

VALUE OF WAGES

MAIN ISSUE AT STAKE CARPENTERS’ DISPUTE REPLY TO PRIME MINISTER P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 24. “ I am sorry I did not make it clear that the National Council of the Federation of Labour sought clarification of the regulations in order that the application for a further wage increase could be made taking relevant factors such as increased production into consideration,” said the president of the New Zealand Carpenters’ Union, Mr F. L. Langley, to-day, replying to a statement made by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, at Dunedin. “What I tried to do was to give the council’s reason for such a necessary action—namely, that workers’ wages are of no more value to-day than when' we received £3 or £4 a week. “I am unable to find anywhere in my reply to the Prime Minister that I had said or inferred ‘ the futility of all remuneration increases for the mass of the people since the Labour® Government came into office, ” Mr Langley said. “ I quoted a mover who referred to wages, meaning the wages of workers. “Figures can and will be provided showing that the existing price index is not a true measuring rod with which to gauge the standard of living. This is one major reason why every housewife knows that benefits gained under the Labour administration are rapidly being lost through higher prices and the increase in the cost of living over which there appears to be no real control. “Had the Government acted on the recommendations of the Federation of Labour on post-war stabilisation this position might have been rectified,” ? e -i S ? I< r “The Government, however, failed to take the necessary action. Let this be a timely warning that only drastic action on the part of the Government to arrest this position can sa ™ 1* fr °m further disfavour. With reference to my attitude towards law and democracy, I claim, with other workers, that where the law is’ against the best interests of the people we have a democratic right to protest effectively,” Mr Langley went on. “Only thus can we hope to maintain democratic freedom, and only by such efforts have anti-working class laws of the past been repealed. Communists Within Union

“ With reference to members of the Communist Party named by the Prime Minister,” he said, “ I have worked with only three of them in their official positions as representatives of the Carpenters’ Union, and whatever their political affiliations may be, there is one outstanding fact—they have never spared themselves in the interests of union members and workers as a whole.

“The Prime Minister should have a higher regard for the intelligence of the workers of New Zealand than to believe that they can be mobilised into industrial action without just and sufficient reason,” Mr Langley added. “This is one of the reasons why I said that the Government is blind to the real situation of the workers, as in the present case a just and logical claim to restore the wage rates of carperters and joiners with those of other sections of workers in the building industry is being misconstrued to divert workers from the real issue at stake.”

When asked if it were true that detectives had questioned him about the go-slow policy of carpenters, Mr Langley said he had no comment to make.