WHARF SCENES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1887, 23 October 1913, Page 8

WHARF SCENES.

3 FREE LABOUR ON STEAMERS. From early in tho morning till after 5 p.m. yesterday the topic of converr satioii on Wellington wharves was tho ' strike. At tho conclusion of tho 10 ' o'clock meeting several hundred men congregated' at tho head of tlio ■ Queen's Wharf, Post Office Square, and ? in front of tho Waterside " Workers' i Union's offices. They formed tliem- ) selves into groups and discussed the ! situation. They were orderly crowds, ■ and there was little or no excitement, i They did not disperse till after 5 ; o'clock. When tho decision of the shipI owneirs was nia<lc known there was hardly any comment savo for a remark or two, such as, "I told you so," and "The. rotters." Row on the Wairuna. , The shipowners' decision to select any men they chose (union men) instead ■ of allowing the men who had been working on any particular ship to resume ; work on that ship, greatly upset tho .men, but some of them turned to on vessels on which they were not working on Tuesday. This caused trouble amongst themselves, with the result that some of tho men on tho Union collier Wairuna came to blows. Subsequently these men knocked off, and all was quiet at that ship again. Working the Manuka. Up till 10 a.m. yesterday the Manuka's cargo and passengers' luggage from Sydney was being discharged by her seamen, the Harbour Board's pery majient men receiving it from the slings. At the hour mentioned tho waterside workers who had been attending the meeting came along and turned to. A largo crowd of men who had knocked off work on other steamers called upon tho Manuka's men to como out. This they refused, to do,.and kept at their jobs till dinner hour arrived. When the watersiders at the Wahine and Corinna were called upon to leave their ships they did so. The Harbour Board officials , cleared the wharves ill the vicinity of the Wahine and Manuka, and erected tho banricades. Later in the afternoon the Corinna, which was being worked in the holds by the Union Company's permanent men, was shifted from Jervois Quay to the Queen's Wharf No. 2—thd part wliero the barricades had been erected. Permanent Men's Work. Excellent work was done at the Mapourika yesterday morning. Botween the bourse of 8 a.m. and 12.45' p.m. some 300 tons of cargo was handled, and tlio vessel got away to time. Tho work was carried out by tho Union Company's permanent men, and those in tho'employ of tho Harbour Board's permanent staff. There were only two gangs working, and they handled about 37 tons an hour. Stood Loyal. One featuro of the trouble yesterday was the way in which the permanent hands of the Harbour Board stood loyal to their employers. Inside the sheds, instead of the ordinary waterside casual workers, there were uniformed and brass-buttoned officers at work on jiggers and stacking cargo. In some cases members of the casual staff also worked during the afternoon. This was found out by the strike men, and the working casuals were pulled out along with tho rest. Port Sailings. With tho exception of the A. and A. Line's chartered steamer Northern, all tho steamers which wero scheduled to leave port got away last evening. Their cargoes had been worked by their own crews, and the. Harbour Board's permanent, hands. In some cases free labour was engaged in- tho vessel's holds. In ono instanco the seamen employed on ono coastal vessel wero asked to help with loading cargo on another steamer owned by tho same company. This thoy refused to do, and it is understood that the secretary of the Wellington Branch of tho Seamen's' Union upheld the men's decision. "The Right Thing." At an early hour this morning a member of the Waterside Workers' Union came into Tiie Dominion" Offico and said that in his opinion the union men who had accepted engagements in place of tho men who had attended the ''stop-work" meeting did tho right thing, and should not have been called "scabs." ,He contended these men, being members of tho union, and having beon offered engagements by tho labour foreman, had a perfect right to work in tho places of their fellow-work-ers'. Further, he contended that a mistake had been made by the executive in not telling the men who attended tho "stop work" meeting not to accept engagements in place of tho men who had been taken out of tho llimutaka, Wairuna, and Northern. An announcement appears elsewhere in this issue, stating that owing to tho agreement between tho Waterside Workers' Union and tho various shipping companies having been terminated, applications are invited from those desirous of obtaining employment loading and unloading steamers on the "Wellington wharves. , All such applications are to bo made to the companies concorned.