Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 114, 4 August 1927, Page 12

Trades and the Workers

BY

BOXWOOD

UNION MEETINGS DUE

Dairy Employees To-night Related Printing Trades To-night Amalgamated Society of Engineers August 5 Painters August S Storemen August 9 Gas Employees August 10 Labour Representation Committee August 10 Carpenters August 10 Onehunga Carpenters at Onehunga August 10

The Forestry Department sent 25 men to plant trees at Riverhead yesterday. Most of them are “twelve bob a day” men. The benefit entertainment given in the Concert Chamber for the widow and four children of the late C. F. Allen, well-known among painters, drew about 500 people. Some little assistance should be forthcoming for the cause. A “get together” smoke social for members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers will be held in Room 9 at the Trades Hall on Friday evening. A slight improvement is still noticeable in the trade —for which everyone is duly thankful. “One of the worst years in my recollections” is how Mr. Oscar Mcßrine describes the state of affairs on the wharves. “Work is very spasmodic and things are very serious. Reorganising “The Worker.”--ln accordance with the decision of the Wanganui Conference of the Labour Party a scheme to reorganise the “New Zealand Worker” is now before the Labour Movement. Prospectuses have been issued inviting applications of £ 1 shares or donations. The shares will be issued only to members of the Labour Movement. No Agreement. The . Biscuit Workers’ Federation dispute, heard in Wellington recently, will be taken before the Arbitration Court, probably early in September. No agreement could be reached on the more important clauses. One of the cardinal demands of the workers was a 44-hour week, which some Christchurch firms are already working. Centres Considering.—Federating the brickworkers is still in the air. Dunedin has called a special meeting to discuss the proposals. That union is shortly to proceed for a new award. Just how the union is treated on the points of burners’ 12-hour shifts and overtime for casual burners, will be watched with interest throughout the Dominion. Inaugural Meeting.—The organisation of general clerks will shortly be advanced by an inaugural meeting. Then it will be interesting to see what the employers will do. As they are already organised in employers’ federations, it is difficult to see how they can oppose a union of clerks. The free organisation of labour was subscribed to in the Peace Treaty, but that is probably regarded as a scrap of paper by now. The Timber Slump.—Mr. E. J. Phelan, secretary of the Auckland Timber Workers’ Union, is in Wellington attending a conference of the New Zealand Timber Workers’ Federation. It is devoutly to be hoped that something will result from the conference’s recommendations to the Government. The industry is a weighty factor in the prosperity of Auckland, and at present it can do nothing but await succour through a substantial tariff on sawn timber, or some other stimulus to building. Federating Factory Workers.—A conference of butter and cheese-fac-tory workers’ unions is being held in W'ellington this week to try and federate the workers in that industry nationally. Unions in Southland, Taranaki, Wellington and Auckland are present. Mr. J. P. Johns, secretary of the Butter and Cheese-Factory Workers’ Union in Auckland, is there throwing his weight into the fight. Dairy-factory employees are up against the hardest men and the best organised croakers in the Dominion. The farmers are organised, crossorganised and backed by a Government which has hitherto protected

them against unionism in farm labour. Against this very noisy body of men the factory workers have to unite to withstand the cry heard in the Rotorua conference against the “generous” awards in the dairy factories. * * * An Australian Discussion.—Whether foremen should be members of a union was discussed in the Federal Arbitration Court in Sydney recently, when a timber workers’ dispute came before it. Judge Lukin agreed with prior pronouncements of Mr. Justice Powers and Sir John Quick that neither a manager nor a foreman should be in a union. The employees’ representative replied that the court should not take upon itself to dictate to any person that he should not be a union member. Why should foremen not be union members? It is not fundamentally a question of serving two masters, for they are in a position to further the interests of unionism to the bosses’ benefit, and most foremen are as good unionists as anyone else. Of course, there are some of that class who get 6d a day more, and do the dirty in “racing” their men. Strong unionism would knock those back. Gang Put Off. —Some time ago the Tramwaymen’s Union, gratified to read that the City Council had decided not to put men off the permanent way, passed a resolution thanking the council for doing its part to tide the toilers over the hard winter. Judge everyone’s surprise to find thirty men awarded the “D.C.M.” (don’t come Monday) last week-end. It was a bolt from the bluest skies, and thel'e is some suspicion that there is behind it some propaganda for the loan proposals polls on August 17. It is noticeable that however frequently the boosters state that they are not advocating the loan to absorb unemployment, they enlarge on the fact that 130 men will be discharged in September if the poll is not carried. As far as the men discharged last week are concerned, they were sacked as a gang with scant regard for juniority or any other of the bases usually considered. At least the principle “last on, first off,” should have been observed. Provident Funds.—The Auckland Tile and Pottery-Workers’ Union is considering beginning a sickness and accident fund. Meetings to discuss it are being held in various depots, and a vote will eventually be taken. Beginning two years ago with a membership of 25, the Gas Employees’ Provident Fund has had a very successful run, and now has about 100 contributors. Members contribute Is a fortnight and in the case of accident or sickness are paid three months at £- a week and three months at 10s, apart from any moneys due uner the Workers’ Compensation Act. In accordance with the legal requirements of such funds, the Gas Employees’ Provident is wound up each September, the end of its financial year, and any surplus distributed among members. Otherwise it would have to be incorporated. Such schemes, of course, have their limitations, both in principle and in practice, but the Gas Employees’ fund has given great satisfaction. Passing From These Shores.—Seven painters are packing their brushes aboard the Maheno on Friday to try their fortunes in Autralia. It is to be hoped they do better there, for things could not be worse than they are here. One of the surest indications of the poor comparison the Dominion bears with Australia is the number of clearances granted in various unions to tradesmen going across the Tasman.

Take the painters, for instance. A job for a painter in this town to-day would take a power of finding.- There are no big works in sight before the end of November, perhaps when the War Memorial Museum will be ready for the painters, and by that time the summer painting boom will be on and the job will not have any value as a stabiliser of employment. One big job now would be worth 100 of them in the summer. And that is the fault of all these works —there is nothing to be put in hand when times are hard. Far off and not yet showing over the horizon is the Penrose railway workshops. That, however, is a year or more away, and won’t put a week’s wages in an unemployed painter’s pocket to-day. Under these conditions Australia reads to the New Zealand tradesman like a painters’ paradise. In a recent Syney paper there were 17 advertisements for painters, which at least indicates that the demand is greater than the supply. Sydney painters were recently working on a basic wage of £5 12s. A wage of 3s 6d an hour was being paid painters at Canberra not many months ago, and things are still good there. Electricians’ Apprentices.—The application of the court’s order to force electrician employers to obtain the approval of the Apprenticeship Committee in the trade before taking on a boy may have some good effect, but it is really a half-rhearted kind of way to ensure the best training of lads. The feeling of the union is that oneman shops should not be allowed a boy at all. The whole object of it is cheap labour. The apprentice is taken on a job and does a journeyman’s work with no qualifications to touch a tool These are the employers who turn out a crop of “wire-busters” to lower the trade standard disastrously. is a crying need for better education of electrical apprentices. One of the best experiences for the lads in small shops would be 18 months or so in a really big works. As it is the technical school is not equipped with apparatus to teach electrical apprentices. A suggestion has been made that the college should borrow a look at tlie Rower Board’s apparatus. This would be very feasible, if the very reasonable suggestion was given effect to in the trade, of giving lads Saturday morning off to attend technical instruction. As it is a boy, between military training and the necessary healthy interest in games, has no time to call his own.