BRICKLAYERS5 LONG HOURS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15975, 18 November 1919, Page 7

BRICKLAYERS 5 LONG HOURS.

To the Editor, _ Sir,—Kindly allow me a small space in. the. column of your daily paper to reply to Mr J. C. Brodie re bricklayers working- long hours. In the first place, I "would like to know what right he has to question what hours a man works. At the present time, with the wages and broken time, it takes a man all his time to make ends meet with M 19s a weok without any broken time, and a full week for a bricklayer is a rarity. Take, for instance, a family of six—four children, father a.nd mother —house rent £l, food £2 ss, coal and gas 9s, wear and tear of boots and clothes 15s. He has 10s left to put away for a i-ainy day, and this is not including school requisites for hia chil- | drea or any extras. ■ It is all very well for Mr Birodie with his comfortablesalary each week, wet or dry—we could a.U lijjo if wo had bis income. As for affecting the health and strength, I worked for fourteen yeai-s in the Old Country ten hours per day, and i am as strong and able'to do my work as the average man of my age. I should like to know why Mr Brodie picked on the bricklayers working long hours. I know men down at the Freezing Works doing thirteeu and fourteen hours per day. Why? Because there is a ruah of work now, and I do not (think it will last for aver. I believe in a couple of years the rush will be ail over, and contractors will be wanting us to work less than eight hours per day. Plenty of time to rest then so "make hay while the sun shines." I am satisfied that a man can work just as well for 9-J- hours a day as he can do 8 hours. The other 1£ hours are nob going to kill him any sooner, and the extra money helps the hone. Mr Brodie talks about raising the rate, but that is easier said than done. A bricklayers' deputation met the builders last week to sw if they would raise their wages to 2s 6d per hour, but the decision was 2s 4M with an 8 hour day and 3s for an "extra hour. If the builders of Wanganui thought that the men could not do as much work in the last hour as in the first, do you think they would have allowed them to do so, a.nd why would they pay more for the last hour. My opinion of Mr Brodie is that ho do'ea not ca.re who sinks if he swims.— I am, etc., ONE AT THE TRADE.