The Labour Conference.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 4 October 1890, Page 2

The Labour Conference.

(Thursday.) Mr I). P. Fisher was elected chairman. In the course of the discussion Mr McLean said, " when the Unions were moderate in tone and asked for a fair share of the earnings, having regard to the risk run by the employers, it \rould be found that thecoDdition of the employes would be very considerably ameliorated. Let them put aside the bugbear, and decide that all men should be allowed to work on an equality. It must be admitted that it was unI reasonable to ask the company to do'.-h.irge its present employes. It would take back its old hands whenever there wero vacancies for them, and would not retain a modicum of bitterness towards any body. Bygones would be bygones and everything would be forgotten and forgiven, and he hoped the company would c 'ntinue to be that success and credit to New Zealand which he believed it had hitherto been. Mr Mil'ar replying said that the seamen had no feeling against the company, and would go b:ick to work to morrow if only they could do so on terms fair and suitable to themselves. But work with nonunionists they never would. The real cause of the strike was the employment of non-union labour on the Sydney wharves. The Union would have been prepared to put on ail their men— fiianien and all — to d boharge the vessel, so as to keep New Zealand out of it, and he had offered to keep all our coastal trade clear of the conflict, but the very next morning there appeared in the Otago Daily Times an advertisement calling for seamen, firemen, and trimmers. Thus the Union Company were the aggressors, and the Maritime Council had no option bit to call its men out. The question of Union and non - Union labourers working together was an insuperable barrier to settlement, go far as the seamen were concerned. Other Unions would speak for themselves. (Applause.) Mr Seymour (Wharf Labourer's Union) asserted that "It w-is absolutely impossible that Unionists could work with nou-Uuionists, il only for the reason <-hat the latter were incompetent. It would mean that three-fourths of the work wou'd fall upon the qualified Unionist, though th" others — the weed< rather than the flower of New Zealand — drew equal wages." Many other members spoke, but practically merely to air the grounds they have thought fit to strike, on and with no possiole suggestions towards a settlement. The Railway Commissioners wrote to an application to join " representing as they do so important a branch of the public service as the railways, felt it incumbent upon them and their employees to maintain the strictest neutrality in any trade or labour disputes which might arise. They therefore declined the invitation."' The meeting adjourned to the no*t day.