SHIPS' DESERTERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2631, 29 November 1915, Page 8

SHIPS' DESERTERS

TROUBLE ON THE MOERAKI

AND HOW IT WAS SETTLED

The Union Company's- JJoeraki was delayed iu lior departure for Sydney on Friday evening on account of a'shortage I in her stokehold crew. Endeavours were made to replace two firemen who'had deserted, and three trimmers, but without success. At last- representations wore made to ih'e steerage passengers to take the vacant position's, and' they agreed to do so. The other members of the ship's company refused to sail in the vessel till the new men had paid their entranco fees to the union. Tho Union Company agreed! to do this, and the vessel got a,way for Sydney about four hours late. On Saturday morning Mr. W. A. Kennedy, manager of the local branch of the Union Company, and Mr. W. T. Young, secretary of the Federated Seamen's Union, made the following statements concerning the whole trouble;— Mr. Kennedy's Statement. "If the statement attributed to Mr. Young by the Press, that in his opinion the firemen and on the Moeraki were quite justified in taking the stand they did, accurately represents his views, I am quite unable to follow his process of reasoning. "Ho refers to men signing on for ono voyage as non-unionists and then -leaving at the completion of the voyage without paying their .entrance fees to the Seamen' 6 Union. If this is regarded by the union as an offence against their organisation, how much greater tlie offence 'against the public is the fact that two members of the-Seamen's Union deliberately deserted from the Moeraki on arrival at Wellington yesterday (Friday). . "Tho industrial agreement in- existence between the Sea-men's Union and the shipowners provides that the latter shall ijive preference of employment to members of the Seamen's Union, but the secretary of the union openly admits that it is most difficult, if not impossible, .to secure a sufficient number of qualified membgrs of the union to fill the vacancies as they occur on the steamers, and in "this event men. must necessarily be recruited from the ranks of .those who are not members of the union. The industrial agreement provides, inter alia, that in such cases the entrance fee and subscription to the union becomes payable on tho first payday. a/ter joining the ship, when-it shall paid to'tho delegate oil board or to the secretary of any branch' of 1 the' union. "In tho case of the Moeraki, as 1 it was found impossible to secure cither from the ranks of 'the union or elsewhere ashore, five trimmers required to fill the vacancies caused by desertion and otherwise, the ship's officers were compelled, much against their inclination, to call for volunteers from amongst tho passengers.

"The men wore available, but tho repiainder cf tlhe crew took up the position that unless their entrance fees to tho Seamen's Union of 255. per man (£6 ss. in all) were iinmedia-telv paid, they would decline to take tho ship to sea. - -This attitude was not instified oither by the circumstances or by the wording or intention of the agreement, as the fees ivere not really, payable till first, pay-day. In order, "however, to keep faith with the public, and having also in view the fact that tho Moeraki carried the mail for our troops at the front, tho demand of the men was agreed to, and the amount of £6 ss. was paid by the master of the Moeraki to the secretary of the union on board, thus placing the company in tho liosition of having to act as the accent for the Seamen's Union in the matter <jf the collection of the fees of the latter— a. position which is nothing short of ridiculous—especially as, in view cf the inability of the union to supply moil to fill the vacancies, they should readily have agreed to accept any assistance offering without placing., any harassing restrictions upon the latter. Tile public will certainly take this view of the matter.

The net result to tho company is that tho Moeraki, already one day lato, Was detained a further 4i fours; the five volunteers from amongst the passengers had their passage money, amounting in all to £22 10s., refunded to them, .and tho company also'loses the sum of £6 ss. paid to the secretary of the Seamen's Union for their entrance fees to the, union." • Mr. W. T. Young's Reply.

On the above being shown to Mr. W. T. Young 'ho said that as far as the en-

trance fees were concerned he did not care who paid tliem. He surmised that the money would be deducted from the men's first pay. Tho secretary, of the union had the names of tho two men who had left the vessel, and one of them happened to be an old offender. Concerning the statement that' it was an offence against tho public, Mr. Young said that it might have been, but what ho wanted to know was, wliich was the greater offence: the incident during January last by which the Maori was held tip for fourteen days, or for a fibman to put his gear ashore and walk out of a ship? Mr. Young, went on to explain the cause of the Maori incident, and he attributed the trouble to a nonunion trimmer being employed and refusing to pay Jiis entrance foe, and subsequently tho men's grievance against tho third engineer. i Tho men oil the Moeraki had told him

that on the vessel's last trip to Sydn.vy seven or eight non-unionist men were engaged just as she was the point of sailing. Under the agreement these men wore required to enrol 'in the *inion, but on arrival in Sydney they had cleared out andl left no address.

Mr. Young said tbat he was satisfied that the preference clause iu the union's agreement was not being carried out. He gave instances of non-unionists heing engaged at 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning and told to bo down 1 at. the ship just at sailing time, although she was not leaving till 10 p.m. About an liour afterwards, he said, a unionist would come along anid would be told by the ship's responsible officer that tlie vacancy had been filled'. Ho did not uphold the action ■of the two firemen

who had deserted tihe Moeraki. Up till about throe and a. half years ago such men were liable to; a month's,imprisonment. This had been abolished, but the men would have to be very careful in future, otherwise they would be holding out a very strong inducement to the Government to ce-institute imprisonment. When men were working under what was said to be the finest agreement of its kind ifn the seafaring world 1 , thore was no excuse for any man to desert his ship. There was. provision made for 24 hours' notice to leave, and a man who deliberately took his kit out of a vessel and' talked ashore was no good to tlio uniom or anybody else.