WATERSIDE WORKERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16485, 26 February 1914, Page 6

WATERSIDE WORKERS.

The case of hardship reported from Auckland this morning has a direct bearing upon a very important public question. Apparently the unfortunate man who is being denied employment in the northern city on account of the part he took in the waterside strike is a capable, well-behaved man earnestly desirous of obtaining honest work. But because he responded to the call of his union at the time of the industrial trouble he is now refused admission to the new union and is reduced to such straits that he appears before the Stipendiary Magistrate charged with 'being an idle and disorderly person without means of support. There may be more in the case than appears from the report supplied by the Press Association, but the fact that the police withdrew the charge on condition that the man made another application for admission to tho new union suggests there was no implication against his general character. However this may be, it is certain there are other cases of hardship arising out of the same cause. At Lyttelton, for instance, preference of employment is given to the original members of the new union, with the result that while the majority of them are fully employed at high wages, many of the later members get only just enough work to save them from the unhappy predicament in which the Auckland man has found himself. Of course the original members having assisted in opening the port at the time of the strike can reasonably look for special consideration. The lator members expect them to get it. But the effect of the present arrangements is to give 120 or 130 members of the union regular employment and many of the rest scarcely enough to make it worth their while remaining in the port. Tho presence of these men, or at any rate a considerable number of them, is absolutely necessary for the proper working of tho wharves and shipping, as occasionally threo or four hundred hands are required, and surely the time has arrived when the penalty for their loyalty to the old union might be modified by giving them a share of the work on slack days. The shipping companies had a definite contract with the original members of the union, . guaranteeing them a minimum wage for a certain period, but the contract has now expired and though the companies should • not regard only the letter of the bond in a matter of this kind, it seems to us they would bo doing no violence to its spirit by giving the later members an opportunity to earn a decent living. By this time the salutary lessons of the strike ought to be sufficiently impressed upon the men who were involved in the deplorable struggle of last year.