AUSTRALIAN LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1911, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN LABOUR

THE RECENT STRIKES. (From Our Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, Bth April. In connection with the strikes already reported, it is evident that aggressive labour is losing ground. As said, there exists a fundamental public conscience to which the right and wrongs of a labour dispute are instinctively referred, and it is plain that this conscience is not yet educated to the belief that nonunion labour should 1 be ostracised. On a general survey, 1 should say that Australian opinion is in favour of preference to unionists ; but this is not the same thing as non-employment of nonunicnists If the non-unionist refuses to I join the union his right to live and ! labour is reserved to him. But, the ! fair-dealing unionist it more favoured. It cannot be said that employers generally disagree with this view, although recently the attitude of the unions has impelled many employers to emphasise non-unionist freedom. At Renmark the fruit is being harvested, and it is clear that the strike is broken. More, a member of the South Australian Labour Ministry has spoken cut with unexpected firmness. The South Australian Government has a depai'tinent which offers to take charge of agricultural produce for storage and shipment. Some workers in this department refused to handle ths "scab" fruit from Renmark, and were discharged. A deputation from the union complained, and the Labour Minister for Agriculture said : — "We accept the responsibility for any fruit we take in for storage or shipment, and I will allow nothing in this world to interfere with me in carrying out those responsibilities. I don't care whether all the unions in the universe are against me. While we are ■working at the depot I shall give them the best conditions possible, but if the fruit is to-be removed, I will remove it, and if a firm asks us, we will take their produce." Mr. Dale: "And I am prepared to stop any U.LJJ . men from helping." The Minister : "You can take- up any i position you like, but I repeat that ! the men must obey the instructions of the foreman, or I shall get other men to do the work. You men can stop out, if you like, but I shall do my level best to carry out my responsibilities." . A deputationist (Mr. Workman) : "I Jlave never yet 'scabbed.' You were a good union man before you became a I Minister." The Minister : "So I am- now, as gooda unionist as you." It is evident that the S.A. Ministry has taken, to heart the carters 1 strike, and is not prepared to sacrifice the permanent interest of the party to sectional demands, which, irightly or wrongly, the general opinion of the community does not uphold. The Minister for Works in New South Wales has taken even a firmer v stand. Although a representative of Labour, he insists that his labourers must work well for reasonable pay or lose their jobs. A little band of railway labourers tried recently to dictate their own terms, and threatened to sirike. Mr. Griffith told them that their conditions and wages were fair,and they could strike away. They decided not to strike. The fact is that in New South Wales the Labour Ministry has realised that if it submits -bo be bullied by every little knot of itssupporters, Ministerial life will not be worth living. So, relying on the good sense of the majority, Ministers ar© "talking straight" to -unimportant minorities. Large minorities like the solid band of unionists at Broken Hill ! are another matter. They are handled with gloves; and the Minister foi Works puts decided respect into his utterances regarding them. But they are not obeyed. They have ' protested violently against the very moderate fines inflicted on the Lithgow strikers; and the Acting-Premier (Mr. Holman) and the Minister for Labour (Mr. Beeby) in effect have told them thai the law must be> maintained — gently maintained, it is true. Like Mr. Holman, Mr. Beeby has this week, however, been solemnly cast off from "the movement" Ijy The Worker, the official organ of Labour; which prints a leading article exactly as predicted, to say that as soon as the referendum vote is taken Labour will set its house in order. The course of the agricultural imple-menfr-makers 1 strike in Victoria, with its offshoot in South Australia, is also going against the men. The factories cannot work full time, but they aTe doing a good deal of work with nonunion labour; and the unionists ars very tired of idleness. A compromise was reached in favour of the employers, permitting them lo employ non-unionists ; but the unionist leaders presented a demand insisting on "shop stewards' " pri^ vileges which the employers refused to accept, and' peace was not made. In this strike, as in the Renmark strike, the intercession of the Federal arbitration judge, Mt. Justice Higgins, has proved- fruitless.