WORK AND WAGES

Southland Times, Issue 18825, 19 May 1920, Page 6

WORK AND WAGES

FRENCH RAILWAY STRIKE. LOCKOUT IN WORKSHOPS. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.; (United Service.) PARIS, May 17. Three railway companies have decided on a lock-out in the workshops, which are regarded as hotbeds of disaffection. Ten thousand men are affected. NEW SOUTH WALES MINERS. A REASSURING ANNOUNCEMENT. SYDNEY, May IS. The Miners’ Federation, in an official announcement, states that there will be no general upheaval in the coal mining industry on the present agreements expiring at the end of the year. AFFAIRS IN NEW ZEALAND. TYPOGRAPHICAL DISPUTE. THE COST OF LIVING BONUS. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 18. The Conciliation Council was occupied today with the hearing of the New Zealand Typographical Federation's dispute. The Commissioner remarked at the outset that though the dispute was originally filed as a dominion one, it was now being proceeded with as a local dispute. On behalf of the employees Mr Chapman said it was hoped that any settlement arrived at would become a settlement for the whole dominion. The parties in Wellington had met on four occasions during the last three months, and an agreement was arrived at in the matter of wages for hand compositors. The only difference of opinion still existing in regard to the terms of the award was on the question of the cost of living bonus. The men had demanded £G per week exclusive of the bonus, and had been granted £5. They now proposed to go to the Arbitration Court for the Gs bonus it had recently awarded. In opening the case for the employers, Mr Pirani said he regretted that an act of grace on the part of the employers had been construed by the employees into a capitulation, when such a thing was never intended. The employers could not look at the demand for £5 plus the cost of living bonus of 6s. Every employer in the trade in New Zealand had repudiated everything above £5 inclusive of bonus. The limit the employers were prepared to concede was an additional Is 3d, bringing the total minimum wage to £5 Is 3d, the same figures as were conceded to the machinists. The deliberaiion continued all day without agreement, the hearing being adjourned till May 25. STRIKING SLAUGHTERMEN FINED. WANGANUI, May 18. In connection with the recent strike of Imlay freezing works slaughtermen (two strikers were fined £lO and a number of others £5. The men made a demand for increased wages and then knocked off work, alleging that the sheep were wet.