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Chronicle (Levin), 11 February 1949, Page 5

WELLINGTON, Feb. 10. ' Waterside workers this morning (lecided to stand idle for the day as a protest against the interim wage increase of 2M per hour granted by tlm Wuterfront Industry .Aathority_,.an:C. announced last night. The increase souglit by the union ot ls an hour was claimed liefore ti'-.-authoritv on Tuesdav. Kniplpyers.' representatives, Messrs K. A. Belfurd and T. S. JMarchant, and the New Ztu land Waterside Workers' Union representatives failed to agree and the decision was announced by the chairman, Judge Dalglisli. The increase is an interim one, an i further consideration of the applic.a tion has been deferred until after the decision of the Arbitration Court on the application for a standard wage aanouncement, or, alternatively, until after the end of Mareh. When the waterside workers met for their stop-work meeting today, they were addressed on the outcome of thc negotiations by the Wellington president, Mr. A; C. Dellaway, the nationai secretary, Mr. T. Hill, and the nationai vice-president, Ylr. Drennan. Following the meeting, the secretary of the Wellington union, Mr. E. A. Napier, said that the offieials who hab addressed the meeting had been closeIv cj[uestioned by a largely-atiended meeting, which then unanimously decided- to stand idle for one day as a protest against tlie outcome. Large numbers of non-union labourers were standing outside Hhed 1.") when the meeting broke up, but were dismissed by a loud-speaker announcepaent that there would be no more work done on the waterfront for the day for union or non-union labour. No comment was available from the Waterside Employers' Association. A 1 ! they knew was that Avh'en the stop work meeting concluded about 11.15 a.m. the men went home instead of back to work.