Labour Troubles

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 30, 26 August 1890, Page 2

Labour Troubles

• f PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. I London, August 23. Work at Tilbury Docks has been resumed. The owners did not yield, but the Dockers' Executive disavowed the action of the strikers. The dock labourers propose to form acompany to load and unload vessels on the co-operative principle. The owners are favourable to the project. Mr Bradlaugh proposes to ask that a Parliamentary Committee be set up to inquire into the results of Australian statistics dealing with the labor question. The dockers and others have arranged to allow Mr John Burns £& per week.The leaders of the labour organisation have censured the Tilbury Dock labourers for striking for the expulsion of nonunionist men. The dockers have sullenly given way and resumed work. There is a prevalent feeling of satisfaction here that Australia is suffering from the consequences of dock strikes as it is recognised that colonial help stimulated many of the recent labour troubles in Great Britain. The Times, in commenting on Australian Stiik- s r refers to the powerlessstruggle being carried on against theVanderbilt railways in the United States, and attributes the present industrial up' heavals to the extensive use of machinery and the subdivision of labour. The Times adds that the coming question will not beone of wage, but of individual liberty. The Standard declares that the labour organisations have happily provoked capital to combine for self-defence. The report that the shipping interests were combining to protect themselves against the labor movement is confirmed.. At a meeting to-day 60 owners were present, representing every seaport in the Island Union, which embraces the whole tonnage of the United Kingdom. It aims at the abolition of the men's Union. Mr T. L. Devitt, of Devitt and Moore waselected president. The proposals include i the withdrawal of ships and payment of owner's losses. August 24. | At a meeting at Sunderland, attended by five thousand Trades- Unionists, the secretary of the Sailors' Union announced that his Union was about to actively support the Australian strikers. It was also* stated that the Australian delegates would attend the in ernational conference o£ sailors at Glasgow. A mass meeting on Tower Hill passed aresolution of sympathy with the Australian strikers. John Burns ridiculed the Shipowners' Union which has just beea formed in the United Kingdom. Brussels, August 22. The strike among colliers is extending; and 12,000 men are now out. Berlin, August 22. The Emperor "William has sent delegates to Lancashire to ascertain and inquire into the working of the labour lawsthere. New Yobk, August 22. Serious reports are received from the 1 Governor of Illinois as to the New York Central Bailway strike. The porters of the Chicago NorthWestern, and engineers and firemen, have? struck for higher wages and the result- isthat the railway track is filled wilh meat trains. Dunedin. August 23 Mr Millar, Secretary to the Maritime Council, cannot give a definite answer,, pending the Shipowners' Conference, as towhether the Australian shipping dispute--will affect the New Zealand trade. He has been endeavouring up to the present to preyent the Union Steam Ship Company's boats being affected by the diiikuity but if a general strike is resolved upon v. is probable the order to cease work Will extend to them. It was not the Union Coinpnnv tii«i. withdrew two men from the Colac atWellington, The Company refused to discharge them, and the Unionists themselves arranged then* withdrawal. Nap'eb, A » ;ust 2A The men employed by the HarbourBoard in discharging the dredgiag punts,, who are members of the Union, werecalled out yesterday because the Bourd's engineer would not agree to pay them Is 3d per hour. The men were getting Is an hour, and were fully satisfied, It issaid, with their pay. Eight months ago there were only two unions in Hawke-i Bay, there are now six, with between, seven and eight hundred members. >TDNKY, UjJUSi 24, The Shipowners' Conference at Albnry was concluded last night. A letter to the beamen's Union was drafted, which, after traversing the whole difficulty, says " For the owners to pay away enormous additional sums per annum simply means ! that vessels are to be run at a loss, and therefore the simple alternative is not to run the steamers at all. We may inform you that the owners are now preparing new articles under which they will be shortly ready to offer employment and intended rate of wages. The hours of labour and other conditions will be revised with a view of a more equitable and sasisfactory adjustment of the relations between shipowners and employes." August 25 The Labour Defence Committee has passed a resolution that in the ewnt o' any real necessity arising, KC-ive <-n'.stjould be taken on the part of Govoniment to prevent any section of the community being deprived of the nee&ssarie-s of life. The various organisations undertake to place all labour required ;u. ; i; ... disposal of the State The number of strikes is. daily L.c.-c ••> ing. The Tarawera is being- d.sch .iv*. & •>.. her own crew. Large mat» meetings wvry held heie yesterday, which were addressed by various labor representatives, who put forth their side of the question. The seamen, firemen,, and trimmers of the Union Company's vessels Tarawera and Taieri refused duty to-day, notwithstanding that Duuedin is their port of discharge. Both steamers still have a large quantity of cargo on board. Meetings will probably be held this week in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide of employes of all kinds of labour. It is estimated that if the accumulated demands made against the a'vpuing industry were conceded they would mean a yearly increase in expenses £200,000. * , Hobart, August 25. Several vessels have been despatched from Launceston with non-Union crews There was some excitement, but no dis turbance # This D There is no material change in strike matters. The Seamens' Union has forwarded its first instalment of £10 000 to assist the strikers. ' Brisbane. This Day There is a good deal of excitement over the labour difficulty at Rockhampton where shopkeepers have refused to give credit to the strikers mv tt • ■J 1 ELBOPBN *. August 26. The Unionists assaulted a party of fee* laborers, who had to seek refuge at the Police Station.