LABOUR COUNCIL

Southland Times, Issue 21649, 10 March 1932, Page 9

LABOUR COUNCIL

SOUTHLAND DISTRICT. MONTHLY. MEETING. At the monthly meeting of the Southland District Labour Council there was a full representation of unions. The New Zealand Alliance of Labour executive wrote recommending that the finances of the industrial unions be pooled and one big union be formed, so as to assist in weathering the present economic storms, The executive also wrote stating that as the present social system had failed to provide the necessaries of life for the great bulk of the people, it would crash in the near future. Men who had been lifelong toriea were now looking to labour and were becoming Socialists for the simple reason that they were almost bankrupt. In reference to the Unemployment Board the report states all the schemes that have been brought down by the Unemployment Board have had a decided tendency to create unemployment rather than to relieve it.

A copy of the remits for the annual conference of the Alliance of Labour was received. The major business to be brought forward is the organizing of the unemployed workers so as to better their conditions and to advocate for a five-day week of 35 hours as being the only solution of the present unemployment problem. It was stated that the Alliance believed that the first and necessary step to help the unemployed should be that the Government should refuse to give any subsidy whatever from the unemployment funds to public bodies and that all unemployment work should be controlled by the Government.

The report received the unanimous endorsement by the meeting. Mr T. O’Byrne was appointed to represent the Southland District Council at the forthcoming conference of the Alliance of Labour, which will be held in Wellington on March 22. A report submitted to the meeting stated that with the exception of a few gangs employed by the City Council, the relief Workers were now working under the jurisdiction of the County Council. The outdoor, conditions were more trying especially in winter time, and the extra hardships imposed by the County Council, which was

reaping the benefit of the unemployment insurance money, were matters more irksome. The men were called upon to put in 9 J hours a day plus 1/- a day bus hire, which worked out at 1/2| an hour. The majority of the men had never been compelled to undertake such laborious, monotonous work before, being composed mainly of office workers, shop workers, and skilled tradesmen, and were adapting themselves to these heart-breaking conditions wonderfully well. In some cases the gangers, who were paid 1/6 a day extra out of the County Council funds, were extremely zealous in their duties, and would express their displeasure if a man stopped to wipe the perspiration off his brow. While admitting that this clearing, draining, and reading would eventually be reproductive work to a certain section of the community, the fact remained that practically all the wage tax was supplied by the cities of New Zealand. The secondary industries, it was stated, were nearly at a standstill. Factories were working with skeleton staffs. The marriage market had fallen flat, and repairs, and replacements to business premises and domestic habitations were causing a serious economic loss. The whole of our internal business was almost at a standstill and the question might be asked: Do the towns consume any of the poor old workers’ produce? A system would very soon be evolved whereby a considerable portion of the unemployment tax could be utilized in the cities and towns, thereby bringing back into their proper functions a very great number of the unemployed. A 50/50 of labour costs would be advanced to business firms, and householders, for necessary renovating, replacements, and expansion of improvements. This would absorb a great number of men, and place them back in their usual, environment, leaving the rural work to be carried out at standard wages very much more economically, and with a minimum of man power. The restoration of the 10 per cent cut would require to be placed on the Statute Book, and a 5 per cent tax on salaries and wages placed in its stead. The 10 per cent decrease had not been of any benefit to anyone, least of all to the business people that received this “gift horse.” Labour costs were a very small ratio in the production of farm products, but the lack of the wherewithal to purchase same by the vast bulk of the people made a great difference to the output. The wrecking of the’Arbitration Act would soon prove itself to be the greatest

political boomerang that had ever occurred in the annals of New Zealand and future history would make some of the unborn generation ashamed of their forebears. Mr T. O’Byrne, in speaking to the reports, stated that it was the apparent intention of the Government to wreck the Arbitration Act. The spirit of conciliation had. been well acted up to by both the employers and the employees for many a long day past, and now it seemed' that unscrupulous employers and workmen would be able to undermine the good intentions of the more fair minded class of people and bring about conditions that would be absolute slavery. Acts that had been placed on the Statute Book by able statesmen and that had received the kudos of the industrial world were now to be jettisoned and cast on the scrap heap.