THE SHIPPING TROUBLE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 99, 21 January 1919, Page 4

THE SHIPPING TROUBLE

NO NEW DEVELOPMENT. The shore officers of the Union Company had some difficulty again yesterday in completing the stokehold complement of the Maori. They secured enough men before sailing time, and the ferry boat left for Lyttelton. The situation generally is unchanged. Tho shipowners are determined not to employ the "runners," and tho firemen, continue to be in apparent short supply.

A, cablegram from Melbourne states that the dispute with regard to the Loongana has been settled. ' This disdispute, which began in the new year, liae attracted considerable attention in shipping circles. The firemen and trimmers refused to sign on for less than .£l6 per month. They had applied for this wage ,to the Arbitration Court and had been awarded £14 ss. a mouth from January 1.

It was suggested in Australia that the Loongana dispute was being made a test case by the men. "Previous industrial disputes," said a Melbourne newspaper, "and none more than the great 1917 upheaval, have convinced unions particularly of the futility of taking extensive hostile action before the probable intentions of the employers have been accurately gauged. Without the investigating 'feeler' being applied, over 500 members of the Melbourne bianch of the union were plunged into an additional four weeks' idleness towards the end of the. 1917 strike t and the strain which that short fight imposed on the union funds will long be remembered by the men. The new policy, of which the recent deadlock on the Dimboola was a fore-taste, is a cessation • of work .on a single steamer on some pretext, to be followed by a couple of days' 'marking time' while the owners decide upon a countermove.

"The refusal by shipowners of the demands for an increase of 50 per cent, in wages and war,bonuses, insurances of effects, and otherconcessions, served on them in October by the Federated Seamen's Union, was followed by the Dimboola's trouble, which had the effect of winning fo'rthe union a review of the position _in the Arbitration Court. ' That review, according to the men, hag been distinctly unsatisfactory, and there have been rumblings of impending trouble ever since the announcement of the award of Mr. Justice Higgins, which increased the wages of firemen from £13 to £14 ss. per month, and that of A.B.'s from £11 to £12 ss'., instead of the advance of £16 per month demanded."

A meeting of the executive of the Seamen's Union was held in Wellington yesterday afternoon. The secretary stated that ordinary business was b'eing dealt with.