THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 492, 12 August 1890, Page 3

THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

THE WHITCOMBE AND TOMBS TEOUBLE. [srECIAL TO THB STANDABD.J Christchurch, lest night. The following are the issues submitted by the Maritime Counci Ito be arbitrated upon in the dispute with Whitcombe and Tombs : —l. Were the men dismissed because of their connection with the Union ? 2. Have the firm kept their word to recognise the Union ’ 3. Haaj their ref Hal in the past to do so caused the present dispute ? 4. Is not the emp’oyment of girls at 10s a week in a composing room a process of sweating? 5. Are the demands of the Typographical Union unreasonable ? 6. Should not the firm give a practical proof of the future recognition of the Union by employing Union men at once and working under the Typographical rules ? 7- If it can be shown that the employment of females is detrimental to the whole printing trade, should it not immediately be stopped ? A new phase in the Whitcombe and Tombs dispute cropped up this morning. The firm received the following telegram from Dunedin, from the contractor for fitting their shops: “ I have been stopped work this morning" bv the Mari ime Council and the Carpenters' Society. Union andjuor —inion men refuse to work till a settlement is arrived at. Please advise at once. I await reply at telegraph office.—G. B. Hall.” To this Messrs Whitcombe "and Tombs replied as follows: 11 To Maritime Council, —Advised by Hall, builder, who is fixing up ourjshop in Dunedin, that the Maritime Council have stopped the carpenters from work, and we much regret this action on your part, which must of course preclude us from giving any further consideration to your proposals.” It is understood that the test cases are to be sent by rail and steamer to day to Dunedin.

The Railway Commissioners to day sent an ultimatum. They refuse to recognise boycotting, saying they might as well have Lynch law, and they point out that if there is a strike it will paralyse trade. Auckland, last night. The Auckland Trades and Labor Council support the Maritime Council in the Whit, combe and Tombs dispute. HOW THE DIFFICULTY BEGAN. The following is a digest of the case against Messrs Whitcombe and Tombe|: —Early in February last the Typographical Society submitted to the Master Printers’ Association a set of proposals relative to wages and proportion of apprentices. A reply was received stating that, owing to differences of opinion among the master printers, the proposals could not be considered by the Association as such, and advising the Typographical Society to submit them to the various master printers individually. The proposals were accordingly sent to each master printer with a notification that they would come into operation early in March. The various master printers, except Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs; proposed a conference with the Society, which was held, and amended proposals were agreed to, limiting the number of apprentices to two for the firm, and one for each journeyman permanently employed, and fixing the minimum rate of wages for jobbing work tor permanent hands at £2 15s per week. Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, on receiving the proposals of the Society, called together the members of the. Society in tbeir employ, and informed them that the company WOULD NOT RECOGNISE THE PROPOSALS IN ANY SHAPE OH FORM. They consented, however, to receive a deputation from the Society. A deputation accordingly waited on them on Monday, March 3, and at the interview Ihe deputation were asked by the Company’s foreman, Mr Hicks, it the Society would recognise female compositors as ordinary apprentices. They declined to do so, saying that they had not been instructed to treat on that matter, but they thought that, if the Company was prepared to pledge itself to pay the girls the ruling rate of wages for apprentices, and to give them the same pay as journeymen when they were out of their time, the Society might be prepared to admit them. Mr George Tombs replied that he was in favor of doing what was suggested, as he considered that if the girls did the same work as men they should be paid at the same rate. Mr Whi'combe, however, declined to make any such promise. No arrangement was arrived at during the interview on either of the points submitted by the Society, and the manager refused to submit the matter to arbitration. On the Saturday before this interview, the Company had given their bookbinders notice that unless they) left the Union they would be discharged. The men were required to make their choice on the same day. They held a meeting, and decided to adhere to the Union, and, on intimating this to Mr Whitcombe, received a week’s notice.

They appealed to ths Trades and Labor Council, which appointed a deputation to wait on the Directors of the Company. The deputation did so, and the Directors said tbat they would withdraw their objection to employing Union men. The deputation asked if the Directors were willing to submit the wbole question to arbitration, but were told that there was nothing to submit. The Council then gave instructions to the bookbinders to return to work, and they did so. In the meantime the members of the Typographical Society working at Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs had given notice under instructions from their Society that they would leave their work in a week's time, mainly on account of the refusal of the Company to employ Union hands. Before the expiration of their notices the firm had withdrawn their objection to Union labor, but Mr Whitcombe sent for his Union compositors, and told them that he would hold them to their notices, not on account of their being Union hands, but on account of slackness of business, and that he would send for them when he had work for them to do. They left, but have not yet been sent for by Mr Whitcombe, who has, however, TAKEN ON NON-UNION MEN. The Trades and Labor Council took the matter up and asked to meet Mr Whitcombe to consider the question of the compositors, but were refused an interview and then brought the matter before the Maritime Council, which appointed a de-' putation to wait on the Company, who declined to meet them, saying that there was nothing at issue. Some correspondence, which has recently been published, took place between the Company and Mr Millar, Secretary of the Maritime Council, and resulted in the declaration of the boycott FURTHER PARTICULARS. The Wanganui Herald gives the following further particulars The trouble began early this year and during all the intervening time there has been no knuckling under in attitude by Mr Whitcombe, who represents the firm. At the Bitting of the Sweating Commission this gentleman was a'lowed to put in a written statement, and his plea amounted to this: The firm occupies much the eame position as wholesale manufacturing stationers in Europe, because their principal trade was in supplying and manufacturing for stationers in the colony : they worked hard in diverting trade from the Australian colonies and Europe, and in getting duties put on certain classes of goods to place them in a better position, and had succeeded in getting large contracts. This resulted in the employment of a large number of boys and girls " in order to successfully compete with foreign labor." Tha is the point of grievance with the workmen ; and the freedom Mr Whitcombe has set himself the task of achieving is to bring colonial wages down to foreign labor level in order tbat his firm may compete on equal terms with the markets of the world. His ambition soars beyond the limits of New Zealand, and beyond Australian limits. Ha would divert to his firm trade from Europe. A veritable Aron’s rod—a wholesale swallower. The principal charges made at the Sweating Commission by and on behalf of employees whs excessive boy and female labor, discharge of men-printere and bookbittdsrs—because they joined * Trade Union

and refusal by the firm to agree to arbitrationFor the employees it was shown that fines were numerous and heavy for trifling errors or offences. A youth ’l6 years averaged on piece work 6s or 7s per week, and was then put on day work at 5s per week, and for four months of the year worked overtime and got 4d per night for four hours work. There were other similar cases. A girl engaged embossing envelopes took longer time than estimated and the Arm charged her for the extra time the work took, namely, £1 12s 6d; the reason given by the girl for the delay was tbat the machine broke down twice. These items were given in evidence before the Commission, and Mr Whitcombe, in his written statement in reply to workmen’s charges, admitted the boy and girl labor and could not do without it; admitted finings and argued it to be necessary and customary in similar large establishments, and also that a charge had been made against the girl for embossing because otherwise the firm would have lost on the job as the cost had run up to more than the Associated Printers’ scale of charges ” This again was a point urged by the men : that while yet himself in a Union of employers he peremptorily refused permission to the men to join a Union, and gave but two hours for decision—that is either leave the Union or the firm’s employ, it not it must be fought out. WHITCOMBE AND TOMBS IN EXPLANATION.

The following letter, setting forth the other side of the present dispute with Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, appeared in Thursday’s Christchurch Press Sir, —With your permission we should like to give a plain statement of facts on the much-vexed question now before the public, as we find that we have been greatly misrepresented by the other side, several of our statements having been so grossly distorted and twisted the public will scarcely be able to judge fairly of the points at issue. We deny that we have, or ever had, any dispute with our men or lhe Typographical Association, consequently we have nothing to submit to arbitration. We never locked any man out of our workshops, but our men who were members of the Association, and working quite contentedly, some of them for a number of years, were withdrawn much against their will from our workshops by the Association. We have not refused to employ Union men; on the contrary, we have since the withdrawal of our old hands given employment jto several, but the Association have as constantly withdrawn them. The real grievance is our employment of half a dozen women, and it will be seen that in the Bill now before the House, while we are to be allowed to keep those we have already engaged, no office can in the future cm ploy any girl at type-setting under the age of eighteen ; this will virtually close a trade to women which they are eminently qualified to take up, as after eighteen no girl would set herself to learn the business, and we maintain that when a g;rl has acquired the trade she would be able to earn a higher rate of wage at type setting than any other business that is now open to her ; but this trade the men apparently are attempting to refuse to allow them to enter, as the Shop and Factory Bill now before the House has, we believe, been approved of by the representatives of the Trades and Labor Council. We only ask to be let alone, and allowed to ruu our factory on lines to suit our business. We have already stated that owing to the nature of our business it cannot be worked on lines laid down by the Union, which tradesmen very well know. But we are quite willing to pay in the future as we have in the past, a fair wage for a fair day’s work, be it to man, woman, girl, or boy, and not less than the Union scale.

A suggestion that may be read with interest by bank managers has been made amongst the Unionists (says the Lyttelton Times). It is that in case there is reason to believe any bank is likely to support the capitalists with whom labor happens at the time to be at war, the members of the Unions should present all the notes they have at the bank counters, and demand gold for them, thus diminishing the supply of gold to be handed over to the capitalists. Of course this is only one of the straws that show the drift of the current, and it is not very likely that any of our banks would be broken by such a stratagem.