THE DOCK LABORERS STRIKE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2213, 30 August 1889, Page 2

THE DOCK LABORERS STRIKE.

(PBR PBBBB ASSOCIATION.)

London, August 28 Barns, the Socialist leader, states that 150,000 strikers are determined to prevent the employment of Belgian laborers to the exclusion of British Bubjscts. A Joint Committee of the Oompanies and the strikers has advised the aboliting of middlemen and an increase m wages. The Directors of the Dock Oompanies have agreed to concede the former, bat refuse any monetary increase, Several coal carters at King's Cross Railway Station have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment for rioting and intimidation. London, August 29 The Thames wharfingers have accepted the strikers' terms, and it is expacted many of the men will resume work to-day. The Dock owners have held a [conference, at which it was decided to agree to everything except the demand for 6d |an hour. The docktnen refuse to accept a compromise, and Burns is engaged m negotiating a settlement. The wharfingers will unload on to the ; wharves from midstream, and boycot the ! docks. Three thousand Belgians have offered their services at 4^d an hour. Burns telegraphed to the Belgian labor leaders to stop ooal carters from coming, and was successful m inducing them to do so. Seventy thousand carcases of Australian mutton have been unloaded, The Glasgow dock laborers are demanding an advance of a halfpenny per hour. 'J he stevedores have published a manifesto m which they say thoy do not complain themselves, but sympathise with the dockmen. Thousands similarly situated are striking daily, and riverside factories, foundries and warehouses are oonfinod to unskilled labor. Men who do not belong to a Union are totally without means, and frightful privations have been caused by the labor crisis, The payments from strike funds average £1000 per day. There are a hundred thousand married men on strike, and their allowance is limited to eighteenpennyworth of food daily for each family. The pickets get 2s per day. Thousands of women and children besiege the food depots where the scones are perfeotly harrowing. The Committee beg that the strike may be confined to riverside laborers, otherwise they fear the movement will collapse from its own inherent weakness.