The Australian Waterside Trouble.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19173, 2 December 1927, Page 8

The Australian Waterside Trouble.

It appears now that nothing short of complete capitulation on the part of one or other of the parties to the waterside trouble in Australia can avert a long and costly struggle. It is still too early to predict whether the stoppage will spread beyond Australia and to what extent it will affect New Zealand. But it has already cost Canterbury something, and probably a good deal, by interfering with competition at the wool sale, and if it continues and extends it will be a very disturbing factor indeed to the Dominion's whole economic life. But the most important point to be noted at this early stage is the fact that in Australia as well as in New Zealand the Arbitration Court has ceased to provide any kind of security against industrial disorders. In both countries the Court has been attacked because it ■ involves the sheltering of certain industries at the expense of others, but in Australia there is the additional objection that powerful unions and groups of unions deliberately subscribe to awards with no intention of abiding honourably by their obligations. " Compulsory " arbitration, as we have seen over and over again, is hopelessly one-sided, for although it is very easy to punish an employer for a breach of an award, it is very difficult to fix the responsibility for such an. offence and exact adequate penalties where several hundred workers are concerned. The present trouble with the watersiders at Australian ports has arisen primarily because the men, having failed to impose their demands on the Arbi-. tration Court, are attempting to coerce the owners by direct methods. Their refusal to work overtime, despite the fact that a clause in their award ex T pressly declares that overtime is essential to the industry, has been met by the employers with a demand for adequate guarantees that future agreements will bo observed. This the Waterside Workers' Federation, in its queer way, chooses to regard as a "challenge"; almost, indeed, as an affront, which is, of course, pure humbug. If the leaders of the Federation involve their followers in a long and costly struggle—and the latest messages are not encouraging—they will have done so, not because they have been challenged, but because they have been exposed, and are anxious to save themselves from the indignity of an open retreat from, an untenable position.