THE SYDNEY STRIKE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16486, 27 February 1914, Page 6

THE SYDNEY STRIKE.

The position in the meat Trade in Sydney has been growing more and more complicated and at the moment it is difficult to seo any clear way to a settlement. The published statements from either side do not greatly assist the outsider in understanding the position, because there is obviously more behind the struggle than a mere matter of wages. Mr Holman, having ascertained tho facts for himself, has given the workers the advico that was to be anticipated, that they should resume work under the old conditions and submit tho dispute to the proper tribunal in a constitutional fashion. This seems to be the natural way out of tho difficulty, but unfortunately the path is not so plain ns the cable message on the subject implies. The workers may accept the Premier’s advice, but it by no means follows that the employers will see the matter in tho same liizht. We do not know how far

the experience of the past fortnight has. satisfied them, but, reading between the lines of tho reports printed in the Sydney newspapers, we gather that all the employers are not eager for a constitutional settlement, in spite of the apparently definite declaration made- on their behalf. Sonic of them have doubtless been impressed by the results of the New Zealand strike and believe that they have more to gain now by inflicting a signal defeat on the workers than by agreeing to any compromise. The development to he feared, therefore, is that if the workers offer to resume under the old conditions the employers will now decline to have them, converting tho strike at once into a lock-out. If this should be the attitude of the master butchers, New South Vales may easily become ’ involved m a trouble much bigger than has hitherto been anticipated. At the hack of the strikers in Sydney there is the Australian Workers’ Union, a far more formidable body than is the Federation of Labour in New Zealand, and iu the present temper of the unions in. +ho Commonwealth it would require no very strong pressure to bring the hig organisation into the conflict. There cannot be any doubt, however, that Mr Holman’s advice is sound, since it thrown on the employers the responsibility for continuing the trouble and opens the way to more active State intervention in the event of the proposals being rejected.