TIMBER WORKERS ANNOYED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23258, 20 July 1945, Page 6

TIMBER WORKERS ANNOYED

Co-operative Mill Plan Official Ineptitude Alleged . "Dilly-dallying with concrete proposals, ineptitucie somewhere and perhaps over-cautiousness in a Held wnich otxers so much to workers m the timber industry have resulted in next to no progress having been made with the plan of the New Zealand Timber WorKers' Union to have a co-operative mill established," states an article in the July issue of the "New Zealand Timber Worker," official organ of the New Zealand limber Workers’ Union. "A little enterprise, a little courage by the responsible Minister and the departmental officials and the dream of workers in one of tile most vital industries in the Dominion would have been under way. Union officials have stressed to the limit the virtues of the plan but, alas, it still hangs lire." Tile article then goes on to give details of the negotiations with the Government. It says that the scheme was approved by the Prime Minister, but that long negotiations with the Minister of Rehabilitation < the Hon. C. F. Skinner) had so far not produced any results. The plan submitted to M. Skinner provided for a mill costing £12,000 and estimated to cut between 20.000 and 25,000 feet of timber a day. The union considered that the workers in this co-operative mill, besides getting far more than the award wages, would be able to pay off the mill in six years. In support of the union's case the article makes the following points:— "At Waina there is a State mill erected at the instigation of the Forestry Department at a huge cost. As an experiment it had done well, in spite of the huge expenditure. This mill has averaged about 35.000 feet a day, and it carries overhead which experience shows is not necessary. The proposed co-op. mill, if successful—and officials of the union feel sure it. would be—would produce from 20.000 to 25,000 feet a day for the expenditure of £12.000. Five such mills would cost £60,000, and produce from 100.000 to 125.000 feet a day for an outlay of onethird tile cost of the Waipa mill which, as previously stated, produced 35,000 feet a day.

"The department has plans prepared to build a larger mill on the same lines as the one at Waipa—at Reperoa—on which it is pronosed to spend from £BOO,OOO to £1.000,000 for the plant and accommodation, and so on. “The workers' co-operative mill, if started before the Forestry Department’s Dians are put into operation, would, in the opinion of union officials, show that this hu—' expenditure is not necessary to get results.

"Besides, in the ultimate, the workers' mill would cost the State nothing for the workers would buy it back and pay interest for the loan of the money while doing so! Instead of a State department being burdened with administrative costs, the co-operative gangs would bear these themselves.

"Of course, it would wan the transfer of some officials now doing this work to other departments, but that should be an advantage to the taxpavers. “To sum tin, the union thinks the scheme should be tried out. If the worst haopened. and the exneriment was not successful, the most the State could lose would be part of the £12.000 paid for the mill. Union officials, however, do not think it possible for the scheme to fail. The subsidy oaid to the industry by the State at the present time amounts to approximately £lOO.OOO a year. This is a dead loss, with no chance of a dividend. Tire union therefore says: ‘Put £12.000 on the union's co-onerati''e scheme, and receive a real dividend'.”