THE STRIKE WAR IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 7, 3 October 1917, Page 5

THE STRIKE WAR IN NEW SOUTH WALES

THE PROBABLE COST TO THE STATE

A MILLION AT LEAST

According to the "Sydney "Morning Herald" tho big strike in New South Wales will coat that State at least a. million sterling. TTiis estimate is, of course (says tho writer of the article), a very rough one. The upheaval has been' of so general a character, with so many differont unions involved, that tho num-. bor of men directly concerned in it number about 70.Q00, whilst the number of persons indirectly aft'ectod is also very largo. Wo are, all of us, of course, indirectly affected by a strko of the mn«nitudo of this one, but we refer especially to those whose means of subsistence, or earning capacity, has been adversely affected without their having gone on strikei A. big industrial dislocation of this kind must inevitably have a serious effect upon industries in -which tho men have not beon called upon to take part in the strike, Mid we see-many lnnoceflt workers thrown out of employment for the time being, and many others reduced to working part timo only. Though not actually participating in the strike, they come within the ambit Beginning with tho strike in the Kandwick and. Eveleigh workshops on August 2, the result of the introduction of the card system by the Railway Commissioners, the trouble very quickly spread to tho whole of the railway and tramway servioee,' though a large proportion ■<A the employees declined to come out. Then began the sympathetic strike, and other industries were affected, tho most serious, from the point of view of the general public, being the strikes of the-coal-miners,i the waterside workers, and the gas employees. There is no commodity more necessary than coal, and when it is not to be had the wheels of industry cannot revolve. 'Thus the etrike of the coal-miners had-an immediate effect upon industries generally. With, both the coal-miners and the waterside workera out, transports were delayed and interstate and oversea shipping held lip; and but for the prompt action of the Government, backed -up in the first place by tho loyal workers, who had refused to strike, in Hi is time of war, and in the second place by thousands of pamobo volunteers, the activities of the State would have been paralysed.

Decreasod Production. In attempting, therefore, to estimate the cost of the strike to the community, it is necessary to consider not only tho working days and wages lost to the strikers themselves, and not only the loss of capital consequent upon thestoppage of production, but also the taking away of thousands of volunteers from their ordinary avocations to carry on the essential services of the State. There are, for. instance, about GSOO men to-day in the ■ two loyal labour camps established in Sydney—patriotic men who have come to tbe oity Jrom all parts of the country; and in order'to help the Government in this great crisis they have neglected their own work for the time being. This means decreased production; and ae'such it must be taken into account. ■ In some respects .money has been lost that can never be recovered. In other resnects there have been sectional losses which do not' really represent loss of capital to the community at large. Take, for instance, the oase of the butchers. Owing to the uncertainties consequent upon the etrike, and owing largely also to the inability of the Eailway Commissioners, with their necessarily reduced services, to carry the same aumber or i stock as in normal times, the first weeks of the strike found us with, a shortage 'of sheep and cattle in the market. The strike'of the slaughtermen was another factor in contributing to the shortage of meat in the metropolis, though little time wa3 lost in getting volunteer labour for the work. The butchers suffered a decided loss, but if the public, had to be content' with a. ' very much ■ reduced quantity of meat . the money still rif- ■ mained in the public's pockets, and the cattle and sheep which did not come forward for the market still remain in the country and represent capital that lias not been Jost. The same thing may be taken to , apply in certain other directions.

Effect on Shopkeepers. • When the strike began the railway and tramway eervices were reduced to sucli an extent that on some lines for a time there was no service at all, whilst on the others the service was such, a poor one that the Commissioners were not able sufficiently to cope with the passenger traffic, to say nothing of the Roods services. In 'these circumstances the Commissioners asked that all perons who had not urgent business to transact in Sydney should remain at home, and for some days those thoroughfares, which at ordinary times are busiest in the City, full of life end bustle, presented an almost deserted appearance. City shopping fell off to an enormous extent, and ewne tf thebusiness establishments were obligid to curtail their staffs. Some employees were temporarily dismissed;..others worked part time.. But, on tho other hand, whilst trade m the oity showed a. great diminution-the small shops which depend largely on "a catch trade being perhaps the greatest sufferers-shopping in the suburbs became unusually brisk. In many cases, however, purchases in city establishment wero simply ..postponed, and have since been made m the city, or will yet be made, so that business which might appear to have been lost has simply been delayed, lor tire rest, the money that would have gone to city shopkeepers has gone to those in the suburbs. ' The channel is different, but it has been distributed just the same. THo general manager of one large city establishment stated on Saturday that lit was impossible to arrire at an exact estimate of loss. "Our business shows practically no falling off," he said, "and, iii fact, in somo departments it has actually increased, but how much greater it would have been if th'ere had been no strike it is impossible to say. Tho chief trouble has been with the country order department. Hundreds of large cases of goods ready for dispatch to the country have been held up simply because the' railways have been unable to carry them. Latterly we havo been getting them, away more speedily, and now that matters are approaching normal again the trouble is disappearing altogether. This does not represent loss to us, however, nor does it represent .a loss to tho Railway Commissioners. • They will carry the goods just the samo, thongh they will find a certain anionnt of congestion for a time." Who Pays? It will easily be seen, as was remarked to a "Herald" representative on Saturday by' il'r. J. B. Holme, whilst he was waiting in his office to hear from the strike leaders the decision of the men regarding the proposals for tho settlement of tho strike in the railway and tramway services, that it. is a difficult matter to arrive at an exact estimate of tho loss' entailed by tho strike, and in any case some timo must elanso beforo sufficient data . iu'o available to enable anything like a fair estimate to be made. The greatest losses, of course, have fallen upon the Government. On top of the great decrease in railway and tramway revenue there*has to be added (lie cost of bringing over GOOfl meii to the city from tho country, the equipment of cijmps on the Sydney Cricket Ground and Turongsi Park, and tho provisioning of such a large army of workers. And Government losses, of course, live borne by the wholo community. . Whether it means increased taxation in some shape or form, us, for instance, in tho shape of increased fares and freights, or whether it means a moro rigid economy; necessitating, . perhaps, tho employment of fewer men and tho postponement of , urgent national works, it is the people who pay. And on nono does tho cost of a strike, fall more Heavily than on tho strikers themselves and on their wives and families;.

To arrive at a fair estimate the strike has cost the workers the sum of Tie. might fairly be taken as representing the average day's wage. To got at the number of working days lost it would be necessary to multiply tho number of strikers with tho number of working days in the period of tho strike; but a good deal of data is necessary before ihis can. be done. JThe statement tliafc

70,000 men liavo been directly affected is probably near the- mark, but they have not all been out all tho time. Somo havo been out for ovor five- weeks, somo for four weeks, somo for tlivee, and o'omo for two. The statement that tills' strike has cost us a full million of money is probably an under-estinuito rather than an over-estimate. Nor has tho loss been confined to this State alone. Strikes During the War. Explain it as wo will, nothing is ffioro surprising. than tho great increase- in tho number of industrial dislocations in this State (luring tho period of the war—it timo when all our energies ought to be concentrated on tho great task of developing, our resources and increasing tin; productiveness of our country. Next to nclmil lighting at tho front, nothing is more important than this—working, instead of fighting, at home. Yofc what aro the facts? If wo refer to tho 'Industrial Gazette," published by tho New South Wales Department of Labour and Industry, wo find that from 160 in 1913 the number of strikes in this Stato jumped up to 313 in 1914, tho first year of the year 220 of them occurring in tho mining, industry. In 1915 the number of strikes was 314 (225 in tho mining industry), whilst last year the number took another big leap ahead, a total cf 3-J4 being recorded, non-mining industries being responsible for 135. The total number of workers involved last year was 157,102. and tho number of working days lost 895,338.