•
75.
-
• 12
47
The majority however pay the whole amount collected to the dependants, however large or small the sum may be. The amounts paid over by some of these unions seem to indicate that the collectors have not been very assiduous or that some of the money collected has been diverted
76.
The establishment of workers' clinics by the unions appears to be developing and a number of unions also provide the services of a herbalist for members when they are sick. A few pay some form of sickness benefit when a member goes to hospital. One trade union actually provides free dental treatment.
77.
In their efforts to achieve some social security many unions provide free lodging for their unemployed members and a few give assistance by way of free rice or even money.
78.
Very few unions make any provision for strike pay and appear to rely on assistance in this respect from "Comfort Parties" from other
unions.
79.
The laudable desire of the Chinese workers for education for their children is intense and most praiseworthy. Because of the lack of Government schools many trade unions endeavour to provide some education for the children of their members and in one or two cases provision is made for adult education,
which has
80.
Some of the unions, mainly those affiliated to the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, are linked up with an organisation known as the Educational Advancement Society who have arranged for the establishment of a number of schools, mostly on trade union premises. The fact that the Federation is behind this movement leads one, to fear that the type of cducation given is not unbiased or disinterested.
81.
The trade union movement provides easy and comparatively well paid employment for a large number of full-time officials. Many of them are grossly over-staffed and could usefully follow the example of the long established Chinese Engineers' Institute which, with a membership of 6,000, has only two paid officials, although an increase in this staff would be more than justified. In this connection it should be mentioned that the Tea House Workers' Union, with a membership of 3,400, has as many as 17 paid officials.
82.
There are of course far too many trade unions and the member- ship of some of them is inextricably mixed up. The best solution of this problem in the interests of trade unionism generally is amalgam- ation and federation on an occupational or industrial basis.
.
83.
Regarding the guilds and those trade unions which are subsidised either directly or indirectly by employers, there is the a traditional advantage that this can be regarded, in many ways, as Chinese form of organisation and seems to work well. There are obvious objections to arrangements of this kind, but there is certainly no evidence that terms and conditions of employment in the industries concerned are in any way inferior to those in other similar types of employment.
840
In so far as the actual guilds are concerned, the main reason for their existence, the safeguarding of the secrets of the trade or craft, has disapeared. They are however organisations which are well understood by the workers and I can see no reason why they should not be encouraged. They seem to engender a spirit of co- partnership which is lacking in other forms of union organisation as operated at present. Guilds certainly permit of collective bargain- ing in an atmosphere of mutual respect and friendliness and are a model, in this respect, to the independent organisations,