THE GYMPIE WOODCUTTERS

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane, January 26, 1895.

Unionism on Gympie.

Perhaps a brief account of the recent spasmodic attempt made to form a union here (Gympie) may not be unacceptable to readers of the WORKER. Consequently I shall endeavour to briefly acquaint you with the state of Labour affairs here, and to supply such facts and particulars as will enable your readers to form a pretty correct estimate as to the state of unionism on Gympie. It will be remembered that at the late general election the labour party here signalised itself by returning a Labour candidate as senior member. It appeared then, to judge from external manifestations of public feeling in reference to the political question, that the working classes of Gympie were earnest and intelligent Democrats. It now appears that such a conclusion, if really made, was a premature and erroneous one. The Gympie workers now seek to be lapsing into a state of chronic disintegration and apathy, and by showing a perverse and pernicious indifference towards politics, and unionism, they seem to be endeavouring to make some “atonement” for the grave political “offence” they committed at the late general election in returning a Labour candidate. There is a Workers' Political Organisation in Gympie, it is true, but it is no fallacy to say that it is only nominally existent. The workers here seem to forget that unionism is the means to the accomplishment of a great object – the securing of just Labour conditions; and that it should be the inviolable duty of all workers to collectively and individually maintain an attitude of unceasing agitative energy and never-sleeping vigilance toward the universally momentous subject of political reform.

Frank Asterisk.

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THE GYMPIE WOODCUTTERS.

To begin at the beginning: A considerable number of Gympie bush workers depends upon the billet-wood industry for their living, and “support” themselves by either cutting and splitting billet wood, or by carting the wood to the different mines on the field. But the conditions both carters and cutters have to labour under are such as to render it a piece of irony to say that they “make their living” at billet-wood getting! Excessive, blind and ruinous competition, in the form of tendering for contracts, has reduced prices so low that many of the wretched wood-cutters have to live in a hopeless state of semi-starvation and nakedness, while a large percentage of the carters have, through competing with one another, been obliged to mortgage their teams to the storekeepers. But still competition runs on, and prices are still on the down grade. Under such circumstances it became apparent to such cutters as possessed any spirit and intelligence, that the time had come when they should endeavour to form a union, and make a resolute, combined and concerted attempt to check the progress of ruinous competition, and to secure for themselves something like a fair price for their labour.

Frank Asterisk.

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THE UNION AND ITS FAILURE.

Accordingly, a meeting of the cutters was held in the Miner's Hall on the 1^st of Dec. last, and preliminary action was taken with regard to the formation of a union. It was noted at the meeting, however, that the attendance on the occasion was very small, there being only about twenty cutters present, notwithstanding the fact that there were fully ninety or one hundred cutters knowing to be working around Gympie, exclusive of the carters. A second meeting brought about no more gratifying results, the majority of cutters seeming to treat the movement with contempt. At the meetings in question, facts were adduced to show that cutters were receiving 6s. 6d. to 7s. per cord for their wood, which prices would enable them to make, on an average, from 21s. To 28s. (the maximum) per week, all expenses having to be deducted out of this sum, the earnings being in the gross. It was also pointed out that it was impossible for white men – for civilised beings – to live decently on such wage. It was also pointed out that the carters in many cases made only 13s. 9d. per day, which sum represented the gross earnings of an average man and a four-horse team per day after deducting the cutter's share out of it. This is democratic and golden Gympie town. After doing our utmost to organise the cutters, we found that we could get no more than thirty of them to join in the movement. In less than three weeks there were about a dozen blacklegs among us, who seceded and sold their wood under the union price (8s.). The result was that we had to dissolve our union.

Frank Asterisk, Gympie.