At the Waterfront

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 53, 15 March 1912, Page 6

At the Waterfront

By NAUTILUS,

Hello I What's this? A superan* mi&tion scheme for the Wellington Harbour Hoard's pot employees, the permanent laborers. A gigantic scheme of strike prevention which will—a la Veiteh —keep t-Ue permanent men at work for tear or losing their "soup- :,- eraiuiuatiou, whilst their comrades, the oasuals, am Jigliting the battle of work-ing-class emancipation.

An outstanding grievance on many wharves of the Dominion is tlhe excessive weights of double-dumps of flax and wool. Two and three bales of wool or flax are pressed into one- and bound with hoops of iron. In some cases these dumps weigh as much as nine and ten cwt. This has been a load for one man since the inception of the practice, but the wharf men. are begirir ning to understand that nine or ten cwt., whether it bo wool or raisins, exceeds the weight stipulated ,in the agreement—five cwt.—and they are determined to demand two men to each doublo dump. Either this or a reduction in the sizt> of the dumps. This must become a national question, or one port, such as iN'apier, will be worked againet another, such as Wellington, where the greatest quantity of the wool and flax is handled.

Splendid international solidarity was shown by the transport workers of Europe in refusing to ship coal to England during the coal strike. One country, one creed, one flag—international brotherhood of tJie working-class fast reaching fruition.

It is astonishing to what depths the employing class will sink in order to bind the workers in the chains of the C. and A. Act. Scheming and crawling, aided and abetted by tJie paid hirelings of the capitalist State, they will use any pretext to effect their purpose, even to the extent of forming unions and allowing free entrance on the understanding that the members regisior under the Arbitration Act.

The case of the Auckland Waterside Workers is most despicable. There ti.e employers were prepared to give away even their very boots for tlie same reason. The N.Z.F.L. procured advances for this Union which surpassed anything ever granted by the Court to an.y body of workers since idio passing cf the Act. Iα face of the protests ortho Union, and applications for exemption by many sensible employers, the Union was forced into Court. To grease their hands so that the weak-minded members of the Union would demand continuation under tilio spine-sapping legislative monstrosity, the Court granted further increases still—a sort of deathbed repentance.

But lot us hope- tliat these doles wfll prove of no avail. Any condition a gained by the loss of our liberty would be dearly bought. We wharf men work in too changeable an industry to bo bound for three years. We must be free to stdko when we will. See to it, men of Auckland, that you do not betray tho trust we southern comrades have in you. You must fight this matter out. For the sake of the watersi dors of t'Jie Dominion, we cannot allow you to be bound, because we may need your help at any time; and to be hold under the Court, as the employers would have you, would be a direct incentive to weak-minded members to scab on us. All waterside unions in. New Zealand must free themselves from that fossilised institution, the Arbitration Court, at all costs. Soe to it; Auckland 1

The case of Emma Rickman vorsui the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, compensation for the loss of her husband, who was killed on, Glasgow whaif, Wellington, by being jammed between a railway truck and a crane, will com© before the Arbitration Court at its nt-xt sittings at that port.

Captain Post, of the Government steamer Tutanekai, was mutually chosen by the Wellington Waterside Local Committee to arbitrate on the regulated hours of engagement. Hi* decision was given in favor of tho employees.

All future meetings of the Wollingrton Waterside "Workers' Uniou will bo held in tlio men's waiting-room on the wharf between the regulated hours of engagement. The effect of the change will prove bnofirial from an organisation point of view.

The management of the H. B. Irving Co. lamented the fact that four pteoee were played in Dunedin in eight nights, as "Hamlet" would easily have covered tlio wholo season. In Auckland thirgf were much tho same, ton nights out of a seventeen nights' season Being dtvt«fc» ed to the great play, and provirg to be not enough.