AN INTOLERABLE POSITION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 29, 29 October 1919, Page 6

AN INTOLERABLE POSITION

Busily as it is occupied in the mul-of-session rush, Parliament might to find some time to deal with the situation that Ims arisen in Wellington where two ships with muchneeded cargoes of coal oil board are held up by reason of the refusal of the local wat-ersiclers to work them. The attitude-of the. officers of the, Waterside Workers' Union is thatthey know nothing officially of the trouble, and that the situation is due to individual action on Hie part nf the members of their organisation. No one, however, is likely to talc this explanation seriouslv, and. in any ease, it does not mitigate Hie offence. It is obvious enough that the incident represents something in tho nalure of a sympathy strike by workers who have no grievance of their own on behalf of another l'odv of workers who aro couallv without a legitimate grievance, and has its place in a. widesnread conspiracy which extends to .Australia. To call this sort of thine- legitimate industrial action would' be doing violence to language and to common sense. It is nothing' else than an attempt, tentative as yet, to deTy and defea.l: constituted authoritv and to intimidate ih." "'hole copulation in the. hope ot "nalilinc the coal miners of the Dominion enforce unjust _ de' irard®. Tf this sort, of thine - is to be tolernled. Parliament obviously mus'-. take second rdnce to "militant" organisations of miners, "•barf laliourcs, and o'her worker? Whatever Parliament does or leaves undone, it. is nchaps as "jell that Labour has snnnlied such a strikinir evamnle of the. methods and tactic? to which it- is wedded, almost 011 the eve of a ireneral election. It. is not any small section of the community tlmt- is hniim- iniiirionsly affected by tho high' handed and tyrannous attempt at i.nt.imi' , ation bv the, waterside workers. The whole ponuletion, includii-"- workers of all classes, must ciffnv. av'd it, is intolerable that the stale of things whHi has grown un on IV waterfront should lie permitted to continue.