Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 664, 16 May 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER"

UNION MEETING DATES

Thursday, May 16 (today) .. .. “.. .. Thursday, May 16 (tonight) Saturday, May IS Monday, May 20 Monday. May 20 I In almost all the trades the unemj ployment situation is as bad as previously, and in some trades things are becoming worse. Intermittent work only can be hoped for by the majority of applicants at the union offices and at the Labour Bureau. In the engineering trade a few men are being placed through the office of the union which works in with the employers in this question. In the main, however. tl*e jobs are for two or three days at the most. Labour’s Defeat Voices in Labour circles are strangely silent upon the question of Labour's defeat at the Queensland polls last week. No explanation is forthcoming from this end as to why there was such an overwhelming reversal of the people’s feelings. It certainly will require some explanation, but the position would not be improved by the bad taste of the ex-Premier, who said the people deserved what they got now that they had changed tlieir Government. Labouring Work Delayed The tramways extensions work cannot start until August. This is a disappointment, because the winter will be over, and the worst period of seasonal unemployment will be survived. How the Auckland unemployed are going to get through the winter is difficult to foresee at the moment. It was a wise move by the Transport Board to examine carefully the residential qualifications of the applicants for work on these jobs, because it is high time some of the smaller local bodies did their bit by keeping tlieir own unemployed in their own district. Nothing Gained The milk roundsmen, having been rebuffed by the Arbitration Court, are meeting today to consider the newlyfiled award, which gives them absolutely nothing. The meeting probably will discuss steps which will enable the six-day week to be accomplished, seeing that Wellington has a six-day week with better wages. Parliament probably will be approached during the session to have the Shops and Offices Act altered to meet this provision.

Jobless For Six Years Six tragic years of enforced idleness has be«tfa experienced by a British shipyard worker, who, when viewing this period in retrospect, gives, a graphic account of how he mastered the first revulsion to charitable relief when turned out of his job in the yard in 1922, and how he has lived since then on the meagre sum of 12s 6d a week, doing whatever jobs lie could do for this allowance. Here is how he lived: “Weekly rent of room, ss; lib of tea, 6d; lib sugar, 3d; lib bacon. Is; jam, 6d; bread and cake. Is 4d; milk, 3fd; tobacco (my only luxury), 8d; meat and vegetables. Is 3d; margarine, 6d; total, 11s 91d; balance for oddments, 81d; grand total. 12s 6d.” The workman adds: “This bill of fare which I have presented could, no doubt, be confirmed by thousands of unfortunate comrades like myself.”

Six-Hour Day At a recent meeting the Amalgamated Engineers at Auckland affirmed the principle of the shorter hour week in order to solve the unemployment problem, a proposal which had the hearty approval of Mr. W. J. Jordan. Labour M.P. for Manuka u. A determined effort is being made by railway employees in America to have introduced a six-hour day as a solution of the unemployment question which is getting a strangleholt upon the train running service j'usl as it is affecting other spheres of industry in the great republic. “Give the out-of-work boys a job,” is the campaign cry of those who are working for this move to make the jobs go round. Four big brotherhoods of trainmen and 22 railroad organisations are behind the movement, which will be taken to Congress for legislation if necessary, and will be held as the subject of a strike if no notice is taken of the proposals. It is pointed out that some of the railroads, through improved machinery, are handling 15 times the tonnage of 25 years ago, and despite increasing individual productivity, jobs for the men keep falling off. This move, although a revolution

Milk Roundsmen Alliance of Labour Fellmongers’ Executive. .. Hairdressers Furniture Trades from present working hours, cannot be dismissed lightly. As one paper in the States puts it: “The subject is not one to be dismissed with a few words of optimistic philosophy. The responsibility of society for the accidents of industrial progress is genuine. The presence of distressing unemployment in the midst of prosperity and unprecedented national wealth has an evil aspect which must be attacked and not merely be mentioned.” Could Workers Run Mines The collective contract system is held by certain coal interests in Australia to embrace the solution of the coal problem. Mr. D. J. Davies, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, said recently that the owners had been largely responsible for the downfall of the system at Catamaran in Tasmania, where it was first put into operation, but it was working successfully at the Balmain mine, and he considered that mine had now a bis futurq. In the past they had to work on mines which had not proved successful. “Why won’t the mine owners co-operate with us by placing a decent colliery at our disposal, where we can give the system a fair dinkum trial?” asked Mr. Davies, amidst applause. “They say we cannot run an ice cream cart. Give us a chance to prove what we say. Let me make it clear that we have no desire to assist the owners in making profits. Our ultimate objective is the socialisation of industry.

We believe that the system “we live under today is not a proper system, but if we are going to have the socialisation of industry the workers must demonstrate their fitness to run the mines.” To this Mr. C. M. McDonald, chairman of the Northern Collieries Association says: “The experiment at Catamaran Colliery failed, and Mr. Davies blames the owners. I cannot see what the owners had to do with it. The miners argued that the colliery ought to pay, and undertook to place the coal in the bins at a certain price. They found they could not make wages at it, and gave up the contract. They discovered they could not get rid of the small coal —simply another example of the fact that where an organisation of employees find that they have to take a business risk, which is what private enterprise is doing all the time, they cannot carry on. “If the Miners’ Federation had only a proportion of the money that has been wasted by the miners in strike pay, loss of work through casual stoppages, and in other tactics calculated to embarrass the owners, they could buy, equip and finance the most expensive colliery in Australia. “Australia may seriously consider Mr. Davies’s plans for the socialisation of industry when that system has been proved successful. So far, every experiment in that direction has failed, and there is nothing to suggest that the age-old system of producing wealth and progress by hard work and the encouragement of private enterprise is defective.”