DISPUTE OVER WAGES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 5

DISPUTE OVER WAGES

STAGE PRODUCER AND UNION SECRETARY EMPLOYEES AGREEABLE “To keep the show going, everybody has had to make a sacrifice. Only by working hand-in-hand can the show 7 be mado a success. The men are agreeable to a reduction, which has not been brought as pressure, but because everybody has had to accept a cut.” In these words Mr. Richard White explains the dispute concerning wages for stage mechanists, electricians, and property men which has arisen between the Theatrical Employees’ Union and himself in connection with the musical comedy, “Love Lies,” which is to be staged by Mr. White, in conjunction with his brother, Mr. Eric Edgley, and the Williamson management, in His Majesty’s Theatre today week. Mr. S. Dibb, secretary of the union, has refused a request from Mr. White for a reduction in union wages. “People haven't got the money for amusement as they had when the award was made, and if the tour of this company is to be a success, sacrifices will have to be made. It isn’t as if I had insulted the intelligence of the men concerned by asking them to work for half-wages. Many haw been out of work for a long time, and some are down to their last penny. The award wage is £7 37s 6d, and I have offered £7, which is not a big reduction. The days of plenty have gone for the time being, and no theatre can afford to pay the salaries of the past and keep going.” Mr. White said that members of the company had all had reduced sal- I aides, many of them voluntarily. IE was many months since a theatricalP company had visited New and it was necessary to reduce risk*; to a minimum. It was a costly busfi/L ness to bring a company from Aus - tralia to tour New’ Zealand, and expenses had to be cut, especially a£ there were to be reductions in adre/s----sion prices. Mr. White wrote Mr. Dibb, exph/ ining tho position, and suggested /.hat in view of the present conditions Union wages might be waived until was apparent what was to happen. He suggested £7 instead of £7 3f/ B 6d t'or a first-class mechanist, and 5s instead of £7 for a second stage mechanist a week, exclusive of overtime, but Mr. Dibb had telegraphed stating that the full rates iymst be paid. “It is all very well for Mr, Dibb to order members of the unioU. to take full award wages only,” enid Mr. White, “but Mr. Dibb has ijhwer been *a stage-hand, and never wifi# be. The | men want work, and the cvd. is very ; small, and as they are v ilii/og to take what is still an adequate ’syage, it is up to the union to assist tnembers to get work in a sensible mg^nner.”