PROSPECTS OF BIG STRIKE.

Shannon News, 29 December 1922, Page 3

PROSPECTS OF BIG STRIKE.

THE ALLIANCE’S BALLOT

WAGE REDUCTION ISSUE.

t The announcement yesterday that the Alliance of Labour is to take a ballot on the question of striking in pro test against wage reductions lecalls the talk of a big strike before the election. Mr Robert Semple, speaking on behalf of Labour candidates, denied that there was any. trutn in tne rumour. It was characterised by him* as propaganda intended, to defeat, l abour. At that time the rumour ww given in two different ways, which were self-contradictory. One report was that if. Labour succeeded M. the j election there would be a big strikeJ afterwards, because the position cf the 1 Government would be weakened, end j the votes for political Labour a ould i be taken as an encouragement to ihe j industrial wing. The other version j was that Labour, if defeated in the political field, would then try its fortune with a strike, and that the strike Was, indeed, only postponed so thatthe- electors might not be frightened. Lately the rumours of a strike have j been revived, and it is reported that j they have been responsible in some

measure fbr big business during I Christmas week.- Examination of the ! factors! which might lead to a strike ( fails to help much in determining j whether one is likely to occur. It is quite true that the busy, export season is the time usually selected by the militant unions for a display of their strength, but it is just this time j when work is plentiful that a stop- j page is least likely to appeal to men I who lost much time during the win- j ter. There is a fairly solid opinion now in favour of making the most, or J the time that remains before winter J and the slack period again leads to ! unemployment. |

The aim of a strike, if such is to take place, would undoubtedly be to make a demonstration against the reductions in wages ordered by the Arbitration Court. The waterside workers’ award was regarded as one of the causes most likely to read to a strike, and a ballot has been taken already on ihe question of whether the award

shall be accepted; but already the award has been in operation for three weeks, and the workers have had an .opportunity of learning that its provisions, though not so favourable as the conditions that obtained previously, certainly cannot be regarded as causing hardship. In Wellington records of the average wage earned under the new award and under the old have been kept,, and have shown that the reduction amounts only to two or three shillings, and that the men still earn over £4 in a week of less than 40 hours. The genera] reduction of bonuses ordered,, by the Court does not apply to many of the larger and more militant unions and the smaller organisations, though inclined to be sympathetic with their bigger neighbours, are unlikely to carry that sympathy to the length of a demonstration of force from which they would certainly come out losers. The seamen’s dispute, as an excuse for a general strike, is now regarded as having no force. Indeed, public interest in the dispute is gradually dying out. Most of the ships are working and many of them have full crews of qualified labour, though the men employed are not members of the union. It is stated on good authority that the leaders of the Seamen’s Union themselves preferred to confine the dispute to the shipping industry, and that it was by their express desire that other unions,, except in isolated instances, did not take action when the ships commenced working with free labour. The possibility of the trouble spreading now is most remote. It may happen that the seamen’s strike itself will be settled in the course of a few days. One of the principal obstacles to a settlement now is understood to be the resolve of the shipowners to retain the qualified free labour now on the ships.

If there should be a new upheaval originating with the waterside workers, it is not likely to be confined to such narrow limits as has been the, case with the seamen? There is, however, very little likelihood of the full strength of the Alliance of Labour (coalminers, seamen, watersiders, drivers and rail way men), being thrown into the fight. The Drivers) Federation would find many of its members out of employment if the waterside workers ceased, and it would therefore be of minor importance what action the drivers might take. Other big units .in the Alliance are the A.S.R.S. and the trainwaymen. Tlie former might be inclined to risk a stoppage were it not for the certainty that the E.F.C.A. would certainly be against such a course and though the. members of the A.S.R.S. are the more numerous they are not so highly essential as the engine-drivers. The tramwaymen could cause some inconvenience in the. cities, but would have little influence in ah industrial fight.