The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1920. LABOUR VERSUS LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 27, 27 October 1920, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1920. LABOUR VERSUS LABOUR

The issues raised in industrial disputes are sometimes complex and difficult to unravel. There is no such difficulty in conncction with the present dispute between tho Australian Waterside Workers' Federation and oversea shipping companies. Tho dispute turns solnly upon a vendetta nourished by tho Federation against workers who refused to leave their employment on tho occasion of the 1917 strike, and against returned soldiers, who, in common with these workers, .are at present granted preference of employment- on the Sydney oversea wharves. Most people will remember that in 1917 the New South Wales railwaymen struck vtfjork as a protest against the partial institution of the Taylor system in the State railway workshops—an innovation that amounted. simply to the adoption of an accurate record system. The railwaymen's grievance was obviously imaginary. Nevertheless, and., iii spite of the fact that an exceedingly critical stage had then been reached iii tbe Great War, the watersiders, miners, and other sections of Australian labour "downed tools" in sympathy, and for over a month did their best to paralyse not only the ordinary industries of the Commonwealth, Vbut its war activities. The strike ban extended even to troop transports and -hospital ships. It was in these circumstances tnat the Federal and State Governments called for voluntary workers to load and unload ships and carry on other essential activities. The loyalists who responded in good numbers were definitely promised protection and preference of employment, and it was in order that these promises mighif be duly honoured that employment bureaux. were established at Sydney and in other Australian ports. The arrangement thus made has since been recognised and sanctioned by the Federal Arbitration Court, bhe scope of preference being widened to include returned, sol diers as well as the loyalists who worked in 1917. So far as interstate shipping at Sydney is concerned, the special , preference extended to loyalists and returned soldiers is already a thing of the pastl. The shipowners agreed last month to revert to the old system 'of employing labour for intcr-Statc ships on the wharves, instead' of through a bureau. Earlier this year the Melbourne bureaux were abolished pnder an agreement between the old watersiders' union, the loyalists' union, and the shipowners. Tho Wateraide_ Workers' Federation, however, is not satisfied with these concessions. It is now demanding 'that the remaining Sydney bureau, through which the men who did their duty in 1917 are granted preference of employment on oversea should be abolished in its turn. Failing satisfaction of its demand, the Federation '-threatens to precip_itate ( a great and disastrous strike.

The whole thing sums up as an attempt by a turbulent section of organised Labour to establish the worst form of union tyranny arirl victimise returned soldiers and men who refused to cease work on friva lous grounds at a time of suprcmn national emergency. It is not even pretended that any industrial grievance id regard to wagcp rr working conditions enters into the present dispute. In such matter? the Australian wharf workers are fully protected by Federal and Sttato' awards. It is noteworthy also that since the bureaux were established three years ago unwonted industrial peace has reigned on the Sydney waterfront, tn the great benefit' of all workers concerned, as well as of their employers and the. genera! public. Not content with demanding that the loyalists of 1017 should bo ."thrown to the wolvos," the Water-

side Workers' Federation is clearly doing its best Jo destroy the industrial conditions which all workers who wish to work and j prosper are supremely interested I in maintaining. As news stands, the Federation has some prospects of being supported by the coal miners and other powerful sections of organised Labour in its attempt to drive the loyalists from their last stronghold on the Sydney wharves. Such conditions, where they exist, evidently mean that the machinery of Labour organisation has been captured by extremists, who are using it t,a destroy the very interests it is intended to serve. _ The facts of the present crisis in Australia are so clearly defined, that whatever its immediate outcome may be they are bound to serve an important educative purpose. Members of the more militant Australian unions have time and again been asked in tihe name of "industrial solidarity" to trample underfoot their own prosperity and that of their fellowworkers, but never surely with the tact as plainly confessed as it is today mat there is no grievance of the workers, as workers, to be remedied, and that the object aimed at is to penalise some of the worthiest and most deserving'workers in the Commonwealth, and subject them to treatment from which the rederal and State Governments are alike pledged to protect them.