Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 1

Printers Wages

page 63

Printers Wages.

No little stir has been caused in the trade by the candidature of Mr Ivess for Napier. The wage-earning class are strong enough (if united) to return or defeat any candidate, and it is this class he claims to represent.

Mr Ivess's Platform.

In the House last year, speaking on the subject of railway laborers' wages, he said: « I do not hesitate to say that I was returned to represent labor, and I trust the interests of labor will always command my attention when important matters like this come before us. »

Mr Ivess Charged with Cutting down Wages.

The wages question having been raised, the Herald asserted that Mr Ivess had twice reduced his workmen's wages at Timaru.

Mr Ivess denies the Accusation.

Addressing the electors on 3rd August, Mr Ivess said: « In an article in the previous morning's Herald it had been stated that when he took the Timaru Herald he reduced wages, and made further reductions at the end of six months. He would show them that that was totally untrue. (Loud applause.)

And Explains why he Did it.

He would give the explanation, which he felt to be due to himself. When he entered on the proprietary of the Timaru Herald on March 1st, 1886, he found it losing something like £1000 a year. It was clearly impossible for him to conduct it and stand that loss. So he called the hands around him and gave them the preference to any others. He said, 'I am desirous of replacing no one of you if we can come to some arrangement.' There were eight printers, and they made an offer to him to contract to do the composition on the paper for £25 per week. Seven men got £3 a week each, and the foreman £4. At the time they entered into the agreement he told them that if any one had a chance of bettering himself he was at liberty to leave at a moment's notice, and they had scarcely entered into the contract when one man found other employment and left. At the end of six months he told them that in consequence of heavy losses he would not be able to continue the arrangement, and he put them on piecework at the rate of 1s per thousand letters composed. They earned from £4 to £4 11s a week under that arrangement. He also raised the editor's salary £1 a week. After continuing a month, losing at the rate of £70 to £80 a month, he had to explain to the men that he could not give more than £2 10s a week for 6½ hours per night and overtime at the rate of 1s 6d per hour. This was cheerfully accepted, and the best proof of that was that five out of the eight were still employed there at the same rate. He believed that one of them was on the Hawke's Bay Herald. Of course it was much to be regretted that an employer conducting a newspaper had to retrench, but he did not pay a lower rate than was paid in Napier, where he believed £2 10s was the rate of wages. »

A Compositor's Narrative.

The following letter appeared next day in the Herald, under the signature of « One of those who signed the contract »:—

Having been one of the compositors who entered into the contract with Mr Ivess to « farm » the Timaru Herald when he took over that paper, I beg to be allowed to point out to the electors several « trifling » mis-statements made by him in his address last evening. Up to the time Mr Ivess took over the paper we were paid the price recognized by the trade throughout the colony, viz., 1s per thousand letters. When it became known amongst us that Mr Ivess had taken a lease of the paper quite a consternation was created in our little flock, and most of the compositors tried hard to Ret employment elsewhere, well knowing Mr Ivess's liking for cheap labor. Only one man succeeded in getting employment elsewhere. A few days before he took possession he came and informed as of the change in the proprietary, and notified us that he would be compelled to dismiss some of us and put on boy labor, he not forgetting to tell us that he had men ready to take our places if we opposed the introduction of this cheap labor. We held a meeting, at which it was decided to make a proposition to Mr Ivess. Recognizing the fact that the paper was losing from £700 to £1000 per annum, we offered to prepare the paper and hand it over to the machinist for the sun of £25 per week, or an average of £3 per week for each man, we allowing our foreman £4. This was a very great reduction—to some of the fast hands as much as £1 and over per week. Mr Ivess agreed to our proposal and an agreement for six months was drawn out and signed by eight of us, the amount of work to be done being stated. By accepting this reduction we thought to prevent boys being introduced, but we were no sooner bound by contract than he commenced to fill the place with boys. Our contract was just what he wanted. He had us by the « wool » and could train up his boys to take our places by the end of the term if needed,—a state of things we wanted to prevent. We were « euchered. » We faithfully fulfilled our contract. We gave him work that would have cost him nearly double if paid for at the ruling rate. We worked from sixty hours upwards, the most of that being by night—and we got £3 per week. At the end of our contract we were put on piece-work, that is, each man was paid according to the amount of work done. This was too expensive for him, so he « rose » the wage from £4 to £2 10s. When Mr Ivess offered us £2 10s per week he did not state what hours we were to work. We were to work till the paper was set up. If the men worked « 6½ hours per night, » that meant from two to three hours' work during the day, which would bring the total up to about nine hours per day. There is no other morning paper in the colony where such a low wage is paid, and I doubt if in the whole of the Australasian colonies. In Invercargill, Dunedin, Oamaru, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier, Wanganui, and Auckland the price is 1s per thousand. Even in Tasmania, where labor is exceedingly cheap, the price is not so low, while in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide the price is over 1s per thousand. It is ridiculous to compare the wage paid for day-labor with that of night-work, but Mr Ivess quoted the former to show what was a fair rate. Everybody must admit that night-work—which is most injurious to health, and which sends many a man to his long home years before his time, and a trade the members of which are the shortest-lived of any trade or profession—should command a better wage than day-labor. The recognized wage for day-labor in this town is £2 10s per week, which is little enough to keep a family on when rents are so high. Mr Ivess says no man has done more for printing than he has. It is the general opinion of our trade that, with one exception, no man has done so much injury to our trade. Although Mr Ivess has started a number of papers in various parts of the colony, I do not know one of which he may feel proud. They are all very inferior papers, and he generally employs the cheapest labor—men who have half learnt their trade, and who could not hold their own among good men. Mr Ivess says the reduction was « cheerfully accepted, and the best proof of that was that five out of the eight were still there. » Can any man who has received a reduction of wage from £4 to £2 10s say he feels cheerful? I know I felt very merry, and judging from the expression on the faces of my fellow-unfortunates, they felt as « cheerful » as I. Out of the eight men who « farmed » the Timaru Herald there were some time ago only four left on the paper, three of whom receive £2 10s per week, the other being foreman. One of the three is a man with a large family, and who had to submit to the inevitable, much against his will. While Mr Ivess ran the paper, I never before worked in a companionship where so much discontent existed among those employed…Mr Ivess admits reducing the wages of his men. As he referred to me in his address, I take this opportunity of laying the facts before your readers.

Printers' Meetings.

On the 6th August a meeting of journeymen printers was held in Napier. There were 40 present, representing all the newspapers; but upon it being resolved to report the proceedings, the News hands withdrew. Resolutions were unanimously passed as follows:—

1.That the printers present at this meeting solicit the co-operation of all tradesmen and artizans in this town regarding the labor question, and desire them to take steps similar to those which the printing trade have adopted, and fully discuss the labor question.
2.That as Mr Ivess has been accredited with reducing the wages of the compositors on the Timaru Herald below the recognized scale, and as his action is stated to have had a prejudicial effect on the trade throughout Canterbury, the members of the trade present at this meeting resolve to strenuously resist any effort made by Mr Ivess to similarly injure the trade in Napier.
3.That Mr Ivess be asked to prove his statement made at his political meeting held in Napier on August 3rd (which is well known by those engaged in the printing trade to be false) that the ruling wage is £2 10s per week for compositors engaged on morning papers, and to prove this to the satisfaction of the general public.
4.That the Press Association agent be requested to wire a report of this meeting to all newspapers in the colony.

Mr Ivess, subsequently addressing a public meeting, said the printers' meeting had been got up by the employers, on political grounds. He also said that at Timaru he gave the men £25 a week, and the foreman £4.—The journeymen printers held a second meeting, on 20th August, and unanimously resolved:

1.That as the explanation given by Mr Ivess relative to his action in cutting down wages is not only unsatisfactory, but confirmatory of the fact of his having done so, this meeting, in the interests of the printing trade and the wage-earning classes generally, resolves to use every possible effort to oppose Mr Ivess in reducing the wages of journeymen printers as he has been accredited with doing elsewhere.
2.That this meeting of the printers of Napier still further emphatically denounce and deny the statements regarding the wages of the printing trade, and still further again challenge Mr Ivess to prove any statements in connexion with the trade made by him at cither of those meetings, as he has not attempted to use arguments against resolutions passed at the previous printers' meeting.
3.That a cordial vote of thanks be accorded the proprietors of the Herald and Telegraph for the straightforward and honest stand they have taken in the defence of their employés and the trade generally.
4.That the Press Association agent be requested to wire away a resumé of the proceedings of this meeting.