Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 552, 3 January 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

By

"ARBITER”

Looking Ahead In the> holidays the unions have been in the Doldrums, and little is reported from the Trades Hall. The festive season was quiet for the worker, who is now looking forward to a year of greater hope and increased security. It is topical to speculate at this stage upon the Xew Year thoughts of the authorities and of the Losses. The Government must see that it is good business to give the worker a reasonably secure outlook, becauso production is affected materially by good or bad conditions. This security is not provided at the present time, for unemployed men have passed through the holidays figuratively on the door-step of the unemployment bureau, waiting for the good jobs to turn up. The bosses, too, are expected to pool in with the worker in spirit and endeavour, so that each does his part in the return to general prosperity, while the worker himself must be ready to meet the heads halfway and split the difference when a contentious point arises. • • *

Labour Problems Early in the Xew Year the United Government will be asked to consider the question of industrial legislation. It is clear to the new Cabinet that the task undertaken by the Reform Government of solving the question of arbitration in industry has been left hopelessly incomplete, although the industrial conference of last year accomplished some splendid work. If the new Government executes by legislation the fundamentals of this conference's recommendations, it will have embraced therein the unanimous thought of all industrial sections in Xew Zealand upon those specific subjects. The wide question of the Court will give food for some thought, but the sooner the State tackles it the sooner will the problem be solved, and the sooner will the worker be placed on a definite basis so far as his wagestatus is concerned.

Youths Entering Industry The working conditions of the apprentice, whoso lot has not been a happy one during 1928, probably will be investigated during the coming legislative year, when the conference which was convened toward the end of 1928 is expected to be recalled by the new Government. In many of its particulars, the Apprentices Act was quite a success; in others it possesses some palpable errors which frequently cause embarrassment. A tshat between boss and men will do a lot toward straightening out common difficulties, while the working of the apprenticeship committees in the various industries should have produced some suggestions for reform in the fabric of the legislation. Some of the committees were working anything but harmoniously last year, which in itself was showing the youngsters in the trade a bad example in the conduct of industrial discussions. For boys the outlook is not the best that could V c wished for, as many of the trades are tilled to overflowing with apprentices on account of the general journeymen staff being cut down. How to deal with this situation will be one of the things to be discussed at the apprenticeship conference, which must be held if the new authorities are to solve the problem of the young industrialist.

Government and Industry Any possibility of an attempt by the Government to interfere with industry in America lias been countered by the conference of employers which was held recently, and which expressed its opinion noon this question In the following terms: “The function of our Government is political, not economic. It was neither conceived nor fashioned to engage in competitive enterprise with its citizens, nor to administer the tasks of production or distribution, nor to substitute

the judgment of its agents for that of responsible and experienced management in the direction of business operations. It is the servant, and not the master, of the citizen. It was established by him, tinder definitely limited authority to protect and promote Hie pursuit of his chosen effort, assuring him security in the fruit of his endeavour, subject only to equal and impartial restraint essential to the maintenance of like opportunity and liberty for all. “We urge more reliance upon private energy and character and less upon public law and appropriations.” Making- Quite Sure When the first payment of pensions under the Contributory Pensions Act was made in England, a woman travelled from Glenlivet, in Upper Banffshire to Aberdeen to claim and draw her pension. She was unaware that she could have authorised an agent to draw her pension for her, and when told of this procedure by the postmistress she confessed that she would have preferred to make absolutely certain that the promised money was not a myth, and to handle the ten-shilling note herself. The story has one weakness. It is stated that the old lady spent much more than ten shillings on her railway fare. Insurance Does Not Make Shirkers An allegation that British workers* are inclined to shirk work because of unemployment insurance is refuted by the Industrial Transport Board, which sat recently to consider economic problems.

The board's report says: “A misunderstanding, so obstinate in certain quarters as to appear deliberate, of our whole system of unemployment insurance, an attitude summed up in the word ‘dole,’ has created an impression that the unemployed are unemployable, that they coukl easily find work if they wished, but that they prefer to live in idleness on money derived from the State. “The misconceptions in this attitude are so obviously absurd to anyone who studies, however, cursorily, the industrial history of the last few years that we should not have thought it necessary to refute them had we not been struck by their prevalence in some quarters in the Dominions and by the damage that they cause to our people. “The body of unemployed is not a standing army of vagrants and loafers, but a number of genuine industrial workers whose composition is constantly changing.”

“Sweated” Conditions All is not gold that glitters in Russia. A publication issued by the International Labour Office points out that working conditions there fall far below* the conditions prescribed by the industrial legislation of the Soviet Union, and gives several instances: In the glass industry clay is still kneaded with the feet, as in ancient Egypt. An exact calculation shows that during a day of eight hours the kneader works altogether one hour and twenty minutes. It appears that the clay-kneader only works continuously from two to five minutes, but that during this short time the temperature of his body rapidly rises, his pulse shows 170 or 200 instead of 80—in a word, his organism is completely upset. As a result of such work, although the worker spends more time in rest than working, ,he loses not less than a kilogram (over 21b.) a day in weight. There can be no possibility of rational and productive work in such conditions. It is possible that in the majority of cases the requirements of workers* protection are not so completely disregarded in the matter of temperature, but they are nevertheless very often infringed. The result is a general lowering of the productivity of labour.