WATERSIDE SYNDICALISTS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 160, 2 April 1921, Page 3

WATERSIDE SYNDICALISTS

DIRECT CHALLENGE TO THE PUBLIC WHAT THE “TRANSPORT WORKER ” SAYS (Contributed by the AVelfare League.) At the annual meeting of the \\ ellington Harbour Board the chairman, Air. J. G. Harkness, in discussing tho labour question, quoted the following from ‘“rhe ‘Transport Worker” of January I, 1921:— . Let us then get together We of the waterfront and of the transport industry generally have our course mapped out clearly. Not as individuals working at a given trade, but as a body operating an industry, we sot out to make that industry our own. All together conferring and co-oper-ating. we settle for ourselves the working conditions best and for ourselves. In unity and with a common understanding, we present as our demands to the present owneis the terms on wfijcli we are prepared to toil. Day by day we strengthen onr grip—an intelligent and bined grip—which is unbreakable, upon the transport industry. A Challenge to the Public.

It would be well for all to realise that when “The Transport Worker, whiem wo understand, speaks tor tlie JN.Z. Waterside Federation, says deliberately: “We set out to make that industry (transport) our own,” it means just what it says. This is not language used in heat." It is a enol, deliberate statement that their purpose is to rob the presen owners of the industry that belongs to them. 'Now the industry is largely owiied by the public, and it is a direc.; challenge to the public when these syndicalists tell us plainly that they propose to make/it their own, which is just a polite-way of saying they propose to rob the general public of what now belongs io them. Tn- order to make it quite clear that this is- what they mean, the statement affirms thia A Day by day we strengthen our grip, an intelligent and combined grip which is unbreakable, upon the transport industry. > o m waterside problem is not a quest ion of hours, or pay, or overtime work, or conditions of any kind. It. is solely a question of whether the public, through the Harbour Board and otherwise, shall retain the ownership of the industry hey have paid for. of whether a band o syndicalist schemers Islmll be nVTowci. dav by day to extend their "rip. and ultimately make the industry their own. Perfectly Plain Position

The recent hold-up was a mere scratch. The real struggle that is coming is between the public and the spoliators, the Union S.S. Company, or other companies, may believe in these people if they like, but they can make up their minds that the public is in this independent ot both the shipping companies and the Waterside Workers’ Federation. The time is Aiming, and very rapidly, " hen a demand shall be made that there shall be no agreement, understanding, or dealin" whatever .with any syndicalist combination that'impudently tells the public it intends to make .the industry its very own. The position is that the public has -stood this bluff and cheeky bravado quite long enough. If has exercised its patience over the secret confabs of the shipping magnates and the syndicalist agitators until its patience is worn threadbare. The demand of the public will be that tho shipping companies stop dealing with men who only raise issues las a Arover whilst their purpose is plainly tna.t of grab. Ihe companies inav. think to do just as they please, and the syndicalist likewise, but in the' test, if it has to come, the public will prove’ stronger than both put together. Right cr Might.

The strength of the public- will rest on the fact that it. is right. This industrial anarchism strikes at the. bones that hold society together. The transpor industry does not Mong to either the shipping companies or the waterside workers. It is, in the main, the property of the public. To allow any union to combine to set out and take the industry for its own would be to sanction a procedure which -would land society in a state of chaos. The syndicalists boast of their numbers, and talk of their might. As a neople we have met that sort of thing before. Those "'ho did not fear io fight the junkers’ lie of “might is right" will know how to deal with the same lie expressed in Iho bombast of the syndicalists. ,