RESTORING WAGE CUTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18345, 3 June 1931, Page 9

RESTORING WAGE CUTS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In all ihc welter of arguments which have been adduced by employers to support the case for wage reductions I have read no assurance that when the economic position of industry improves wages will be restored to their . former level. There must be a reason for tills. And the reason is, I take it, that the employers wish to have no record in black and white of a promise which they do not Intend to fulfil unless absolutely forced to do so. It is this spirit of veiled hostility and suspicion between employer and employee which turns all the Prime Minister’s talk about national co-operation and equality of sacrifice into a mockery. I feel sure that- all sane and reasonable workers in the country would bear the wage reduction with much more equanimity if a definite assurance were given by the employers that as soon as conditions were stable and prices improved salaries would be restored. But from the experience of the 1921 slump employers will have none of this. They will exploit the worker to the utmost advantage and wages will remain inadequate during the forthcoming boom, which must follow as night follows day. It is the spectre of permanently reduced income with little real reduction in the cost of living which haunts all workers today and which would be dispelled if capitalists and employers made some gesture on the lines indicated. —1 am, etc., SCEPTICAL. Hamilton, June 2.