CASE FOR THE MEN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 306, 20 August 1932, Page 5

CASE FOR THE MEN

(Press. Assn.-

WANT IMPARTIAL TRIBUNAL

— By Telegraph — Copyright) .

Wellington, Friday. After a lengthy outline of the negotiations with the shipowners in the dispute, Mr. Roberts, secretary of the Watersiders' Federation, complained of discourtesy on the p-art of Mr. Turrell, managing superintendent of the New Zealand Shipping Company, in declaring negotiations broken off and not stating in his letter that he intended to put the employers' proposals into operation this morning. Mr. Roberts said the basic wage for watersiders in 1929 was 2s 4d an hour and the average weekly enployment 33 hours. In 1922 Mr. Justice Frazer stated that the average weekly employment at that time was 35.64 hours, and fixed the basic wage at 2s 2id an hour. On that basis, on the figures the Federation had obtained, the average employment to-dajr, was about 20 hours a week, and their wage of Is lld an hour would return weekly £1 18s 4d. The watersiders could not possibly agree to any further wage reduction. Mr. Roberts said the 10 per cent. cut last year gave a present to the overseas shipowners of between £80,000 and £90,000. This money was taken out of New Zealand, and if the proposals were agreed to it would mean another £100,000 direct purchasing loss to this country. Dictatorial Action of Owners The watersiders were willing, said Mr. Roberts, th'at an impartial tribunal should be set up to investigate the wages earned hy watersiders prior to the last award and since, and to allow that tribunal to say whether another wages cut should he enforced. The Watersiders' Federation was affiliated with the International Transport Workers' Federation. That was to say, they were affiliated with all British transport workers' organisations, and while they h'ad no desire to refer the dispute to that body, the dictatorial action of the representatives of the shipowners would probably compel them to take that course.