MALES AS MACHINISTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 55, 7 March 1946, Page 2

MALES AS MACHINISTS

EMPLOYMENT IN CLOTHING FACTORIES Christchurch, March 6. | employment of males as clothing m.icinni is a new departure in the ! n..L!,try m New Zealand—has been i 'ioclertaken by several employers in •vJiristchuich. A rehabilitation, scheme Hor returned servicemen, several of ■ whom have been engaged, is being drawn up. One employer is paying full machinist rates to a man without experience, and several factories are taking on youths as apprentices. “The industry is being driven, through shortage of female labour, to take on male machinists or to wind up businesses,” said Mr. Roberts, secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Clothing Workers' Unions, when he discussed the stalling position, which he described as desperate in j Christchurch. ( A marked exodus of female workers after revocations of declarations of essentiality in clothing trades had been reported from only two big factories, said Mr. Roberts, the losses ox labour being smaller than was geneially expected. Most girls leaving factories were going to other clothing manTifacturers; those leaving the industry wcic attracted by better working conditions and higher wages in o(her employment. Semi-skilled and unskilled trades were also offering female labour wages which were extravagant compared with those in the clothing industry. More workers’ children are now enjoying secondary education and there is a bias againct going into industry. Something will have to be done by the education authorities or wo will have the lopsided situation of more being trained for the professions than for industry. ” Mr. Roberts added that, in the United States and Canada male machinists were overwhelming in number. They were employed on heavier clothing such a,; men’s suits and women’s costumes. They worked on a piece late so that It did not matter to the employer what sex was employed. Abso. leeism was lower with male employees, who also in the main made the industry their life work.