FIREMEN AND SEAMEN

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1876, 4 October 1906, Page 2

FIREMEN AND SEAMEN

QUESTION OF HIGHER WAGES Ncteaofik. i PRKSS ASSOCIATION

Wellingioo, last nigh!

Rumors have been current that a strike among firemen and seamen on ooastal vessels for higher wages is imminent. Mr Kennedy, looul manager of the U S.S. Company, declares that he has heard nothing of it, nor hal anything happened to lead him to believe tho rumors to be reliable. Mr Jones, secretary of the Federated Seamen’s Union, speaks to the same effect.

“ If the men,” said Mr Jones, “ had any movement in mind they were engineering it entirely by themselves. By goiog out on strike in the way suggested the men would be cutting adrift from the authority of the Union.”

" With regard to discontent,” resumed Mr Jones, 11 that is general. I won’t at* tempt to disguise it. We have in onr mind an idea very much talked about and discussed in our meetings, the idea of leaving the Conciliation and Arbitration Act severely alone and cancelling our registrar tion when the proper time arrives. We know that cancellation during the currency of an award doss not exempt the Union from liability, but we think that as a body the Seamen’s Union has been before the Arbitration Court for the last time.”

Mr Jones then submitted that in Australia, when competition was keener in every way, firemen aud seamen had been granted an increase in wages without having reconrce to the Court. Though an Arbitration Aot existed diplomacy bad secured for those men a benefit whioh New Zealanders had failed to secure after 11 years’ battling.