BRITISH INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1929, Page 8

BRITISH INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

The Labour Government of Great Britain 1 hag been brought face to face with in- ■ dustrial strife at a very early stage in ; existence. The coal miners have already ' approached the Ministry with a view to the repeal of the legislation, which increased the hours of labour from seven to eight daily, and for a full inquiry into the conditions surroending the coal mining industry. To both requests a sympathetic reply was given, and it is understood that negotiations with the mine owners are now in hand with a view to a better understanding between employers and employees. The second great industry in which trouble is threatened is the cotton industry in Lancashire. For some years now spinners and weavers have complained of the depression in the cotton trade. In the post-war boom years huge amalgamations of milling interests were brought about at prices which depended upon a continuance of boomtide trade for their justification. That did not eventuate, and the process of deflation has been long and painful. The mill owners now maintain that only by a reduction in wages can many of the mills be kept employed; that rationalisation of the industry will, in any case, render it necessary to close a number of obsolete works; and that if Capital will accept the losses this will entail it is fair that Labour should accept some share of the burden. The wage earners’ organisations maintain that as the employees did not share in the high profits they should not be asked to share the costs of deflation. They maintain that a reduction in wages should be the last step in the reorganisation of the industry, and that wage earners would be justified in ceasing work rather than accept a smaller return for their labour. It is for these leaders to justify their contention that no bread is better than half a loaf, but unless some intermediary is found it appears that a general stoppage of work in the cotton mills is almost certain. This would be a grievous matter for Great Britain, and, incidentally, for New Zealand. The history of every big strike is that while it lasts foreign competitors seize the trade that has been British hitherto, and when the strike has ended it is by no means easy to recover the ground that has been lost. To this country a cessation of wage earning in Lancashire will mean a much contracted market for New Zealand produce. Next to the London metropolitan area the cotton manufacturing districts are the most densely populated parts of Great Britain. Speaking generally, the cotton workers earn good wages, and their capacity to pay for. first-class commodities is as high as anywhere in the United Kingdom. From the point of view of the prosperity of the Dominion, as well as that of Great Britain, it is to be hoped, therefore, that in the two great industries where trouble is threatened wiser counsels will prevail and industrial strife be averted.