SHIPWRIGHTS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1993, 25 February 1914, Page 10

SHIPWRIGHTS' DISPUTE.

AT THE CONCILIATION COUNCIL. The shipwrights' dispute came before the Conciliation Council yesterday, Mr. P. Hally, Conciliation Commissioner, presiding. . The assessors for the employers were: —Messrs. D. Birkett and E. E. Stonebanks, and for the union Messrs. Raymond Smith and . Charles Langdon. Mr. S. Wood, who appeared on behalf of the employers, said that beforo the strike there had betn two abortive conferences with the . union. When-.-tho <--strike was over, further demands were put in, but theso the employers could not possibly entertain. In order to settle 'the conditions, the employers filed,a case for the-Arbitration Court. They could not agree to the counterclaims of the union, for were they accepted, a man at present making £5 2s. 6d. for, a week's work would have to be paid £6 14s. 6d. Tho employers did not feel justified in agreeing to an increase; ' Thbre were 'men now making £i per week' throughout the yuar. When tho dispute first arose, tho employers offered Is. 7d. an hour,- but they did not feel justified in 1 renewing that' Offer, as rates were only lls. v a day in Auckland and 12s. in Lytteltou. Mr.' E.'Kennedy, on behalf or the union, said that it was not the union's fault'ihat'the dispute'was unsettled, as the union had approached'the employers for- a conference,-'and their request had been refused. A further conference was refused on the' grounds that the demands formulated by tho union not only omitted concessions formerly made, but were in-'excess ; of previous demands. Hadthe employers . put forward- their proposals' for an award .twelve months ago, all trouble would have been avoided: It was only when the men "wanted 'their 'conditions of employment put, in the, form of an agreement that the trouble began. Tho union would never have gorio outside the' Act if an Arbitration Court-award had been offered [then. The'employers would,not meet them'; arid one .firm tried to (Jepart from the conditions obtaining prior to' the strike. With regard to ths employers' proposals, thero was no provision made for preference to unionists. .The Conciliation Council then went into '■ committee to consider the case, and later •it was announced that good progress had been made on many points, and the hearing of the dispute was then adjourned, owing to file Commissiou,er having to leave, for the West Coast. lihmfedjjtely upon bis return the hearing will be. continued. . .