The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1927 INDUSTRIAL STRIKES.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1927 INDUSTRIAL STRIKES.

iN to tao 1-r.ce paid 11MWW u> tliu .strut and .strike involving all nranchcs ol industry m tlie late upheaval across the ’lasinan fcca, a eontemporary goes on to remark uiat m the natural satisfaction at the .setilemtnt of the strike the people of Ai.ntralia should not allow themselves to shut their eyes to the disastrous losses incurred by this brief disorganisation of industry, and the even more calamitous losses threatened by any future recurrence of industrial warfare. Attempts have been made to count up the cost of this seven days’ strike, and the figures certainly present a most portentous appearance. The strike lnsttd only a week, but it meant a loss to the waterside workers ol £130,000 in wages alone. r l his would lie a vci> serious matter at any time, hut, as everybody knows, trade has been slack for a. long time past, unemployment is widespread, and many of the shipowners who have paid off their crews “may not find it convenient to recommission their ships immediately.” Oil the side of the shipowners, the direct losses due to the strike are said to aggregate close on £200,000. But. of course, in estimating the consequences of industrial conflicts to the whole community, the distinction so often drawn between employers and employees is very largely artificial. For if the reserve funds of the eapitnlint are depleted be cannot employ fresh labour or retain the services of the wage-earners already attached to his business; and if the workers are not drawing their wages their purchasing power disappears, and there is no demand for the goods produced or imported by tlie Capitalist. It is impossible in the last resort to separate the interests of the wageearner from those of tlie employer. But we must not forget that this recent strike is only one in a long series of industrial upheavals recorded at more or less regular intervals in th» recent economic history of Australia, and they have all produced effects of the same character. The Commonwealth Statistical Department has just published figures showing that the loss in wages alone to the Australian workers through strikes in the ten-year period 1917-2 G amounted to about £14,500,000. which means that the workers of the Commonwealth lost on the average one and a-lialf million sterling every year in this way. This is indeed a disastrous record, and we must repeat that it does not by any means cover the whole ground. One of the leading coal-wners in New South Wales has just pointed out- that Australia’s coal export is “dwindling towards extinction”: and. as the last maritime strike proved, it will he extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Australian coal to recover any market that it loses through such an enforced dislocation of industry. Tn truth, tlie strike and the lock-out, unless they are completely justifiable, are nothing less than national crimes.