The Dominion TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1918. A SERIOUS SITUATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1689, 4 March 1913, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1918. A SERIOUS SITUATION.

The dispute botwecn the Marino Engineers and the Union Steam Ship Company has entered on a stage where it soriously and directly affects the general public. So long as the issues at stake were to be left to tho Courts or to private negotiation for adjustment the public were only indirectly concerned, but now that a step has been taken which it is reported may mean the laying up indefinitely of tho vessels of the Union Company's fleet, tho questions in dispute have become matters of very groat moment to everyone in the community, j As to tho merits of the detailed claims put forward by the engineers we shall have nothing to say on the present occasion. Seeing that'the shipping company has instituted proceedings before the Council of Conciliation, it perhaps would not bo proper at this stage to attempt any analysis of tho demands made. But aB a' question of general ( policy we - cannot refrain from expressing regret that tho company has not Ecen it 3 way' in tho past to meet the engineering branch of its employees in a more generous spirit, the engineers, while not so strong numerically as the firemen and seamen engaged in the company's service, arc, of course, as a body equally necessary to the successful working of tho company's vessels; and any united action on their part would at any time prove quite as embarrassing to the company as similar action by the firemen or seamen. But, strangely enough, the company apparently has never seriously contemplated the possibility of the engineers going to extremes. Probably . their loyalty, in the past, in face, at.

times, of discouragement and disappointment, has lea the company to expect a continuance of loyal service under all circumstances. Some little time ago we deemed it neccs'sary to point out to the owners of vessels tho desirableness of lending grcator support to their engineers in tho matter of the control of the firemen employed on their vessels, and tho enforcement of reasonable and proper discipline. Few outside of those engaged in the working of steamershave any idea of the worry and anxiety so frequently caused to engineers by tho misconduct of their firemen, and fewer still probably realise how greatly tho engineers have been handicapped in matiy cases in dealing with troiiblc-making firemen by lack of support at critical times from the shipowners. However that is but an illustration of the of tho owners of vessels to appreciate their obligations to this particular section of their employees, Oia whose loyalty they have so confidently relied. Now, apparently, the grievances, real and imaginary, of the engineers have reached breaking point, and wo are told that unless their demands aro conceded they will as a body within 24 hours of giving notice to their employers leave their vessels. This practically means the laying up of the whole of the fleet. The legal aspect of this determination of the engineers we do not propose to discuss. Whether or not they will have rendered- themselves liable to fines individually and collectively as a union may be tested later in tho law courts. The plain outstanding fact, however, is that these men who have stood loyally by the company in its times of trouble, who in no way resomble tho militant, mischiefmaking order of unionists, now feel themselves driven to this extreme in order to securo what they regard as their just due* The past history of the Marine Engineers' organisation is such that it is difficult to avoid tho impression that the Union Company has acted unwisely in its treatment of these men. It has driven them into active hostility when it should havo gone out of its way to i bind them closer than ever to its interests. It, is to be hoped that even yetthe company will see its way to arrive at an amicable agreement with tho engineers, and thus avoid ,a struggle in which it is not likely to meet with any marked degree of public sympathy.