UNIONISTS AND WAGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1930, Page 6

UNIONISTS AND WAGES.

(To the Editor}. Sir, —In last week’s newspapers reference, was made to the meeting of the Nev. Zealand Flaxmillers’ Association re employers ■ to approach the Ar- . bit; atiori Court to be allowed to pay reduced wages to employees to enable the employers to carry on the flax industry, which is now at a standstill, and to enable them to find profitable work for the men who are now idle. In the same article it is'stated. that at a meeting held the previous week by‘the Manawatu Flaxmills’ Employees’ Union, they . Atlfe employees) 'by 112 votes to onb ;. decided not to ask for. a .suspension of ■ : award. Here you have the spectacle of the. Employers meekly bowing their backs and their will power to the Arbitration Court,/ which, when it does nbt :■ suit' them, the union employees flout, either by .direct action or by pin pricking goBdqw; tactics, -as- followed by miners, ■yjwhrirf -labourers arid .freezing Works em- - ployees/Here you. have a .large num’-' . her of men out of work, who practically 'say that sooner than take reduced wages .to enable industry to be - carried on they . would • allow the country to support ithen selves and their families in idleness, is not many ’ years back when the stock brokers, 1 etc., -were canvassing the public to take- up shares in: the flax ? . milling industry to ‘ allow large areas , ®f -flax to be planted,, and thus increase the country’s resources by way of increased exports. Yet after the public subscribing : money to farther the indusjti;y and increase employment we have ’ -tho . spectacle of the employees practically out to drain the company dry of its monetary resources, shut down the flax mills, furthei I ..increase -unemployment, : on to the unemployment ’j {tax-dole of J 4& per day wageson unreiriunerative work, and increase the al-' ready, top heavy burden of the primary . producers. Also, 'it is only a .short time ago.that tho miners of New Zealand as Y a/body, backed-by colliery owners, farm- , iersi. etc.,’ were yelling for protection of t thejr employment against the importatiou of.'..Australian coal, so that "the awUrd rates of wages could be .sustained' irrespective of prices of coal' charged to consumers-who might have obtain;' ' ed reduced prices .by outside' competition: for the coals they have to. buy. Here you have the two spectacles —-. one in-which union labour is out to ruin. the shareholders ,of the flax mills rather than accept lower rates of pay, and the other of coal miners appealing ? to/'the. Government for protection .of their . industry - because it suits , them urider the stress of competition and . their drained resources owing to the / lengthy assistance their: unions - gave', to the New; South. Wales coal strikers, backing up i/bheir (own. /union in' Austra-. ’ lia, while'the 'Australian' Coal Miners* /Union was opt .'-io . drain the .coal "com.papies dry of their monetary resqurass. 'yNb w, I '. can. /you,? or’; any of■: your ■■'readers,. •,.s|li r jtne-.wh.y alloyr them-:' sclve.-j id be' banded together to find upiorieys ‘.to float, say, a coal ; mine or flax industry, etc., when they are at the perpetual risk of the labour unions, ■(through the Arbitration Court,/ draining all t 1 -it. capital away, which has gone increase employment and , to allow (them interest on. their money;- Wo all its time have labour through the Arbitration Cpfift’s*.- awards, and under ■dieavyj tariff .against imports of manufaci thirds'protected,, and -yet . the results of .•■jfcheir so-called industry " isto Increase prices , so heavily : to the?, primary 'prb< ,duccrs ( who have, no recourse but to : kecept market >v,alue • for their cqmmod"ities)/ that -they, for the last five years ;»;cre or less, hav’e been working-at. a Labour, assisted by indirect taxaftion to keep arbitrated labour; in em- . ployment, has drained them dry. Added to which labour unions and their bosses, led .by Labour M.’sP., are out to ruin, it suits them,. any. secondary in- . idustry which may bo Started, and which, iurider conditions existing ,20. years ago, -/would. have goheiforward further increasing employment. Then, the®United Parliament passes an unemployment:? tax '{th make farmers, .etc., help to support /Unions like the Manawatu flaxmillers’ . labour union, and keep them-fed and '.clothed while they ruin - the I’industries which should support them in profitable 'labour. ~ > * ' 'Now in' the past, as many people . know, I worked for a commercial firm as manager for that firm in Taranaki. During, the < course' of that -employment in, cc/ppariy .-with ,my employees', I; have . gon ■ '•>before the? Arbitration Court in .- New-Plymouth to oppose any increase in experts’ wages as being detrimental io 1 ihe'iiritercsts of'the farmers./The- men vverp. satisfied: with their salaries, apd conditions, and, until a couple, of .years ago, 1/ along with other - companies’-in like lines, was; exempted from Later the company wrote me that it. was useless fighting any further, -as- awards covered experts, etc.,, in all other? parts of New Zealand. During that.,': time I have seen the arbitration awards with regard to increase of wages and shortening of hours ride- rough- shod over • the employers, who havo in most instances quietly submitted, they, in their .•turn passing jit on to their consumers ( or purchasers of their goods, the employers asking . for tariff protection to enable them to pay increased wages to tt-heir union employees. All .these increase x eventually have to be .made good but of the products of the prirhary pro- ( duccr, who cannot pass it on. In spite of what Mr.. Semple says, the union labourers are driving this country—also ‘Australia and England-with their Labour Governments—into/the,Soviet- camp, , ’where perishes all hope ;of further progress? The'Soviet Government, and all Communistic societies, are out for the ‘destruction of religion, because it i stands for implacable vengeance against 'the. destruction of the divine soul which framed in a'temple, built on the image of God; to 'the end they. are out to destroy .’industry,. family life and everything ■ that is ' be,st in humanity.—- c .1 am, etc., . . ■•■■■ -■. .• C. H. AUSTIN. 1! " Stratford, December 1, 1930.