GRAVE STRIKE POSITION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 213, 28 November 1927, Page 1

GRAVE STRIKE POSITION

Repetition of 1917 Feared WATERSIDERS NOT YIELDING By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. Received 9.5 a.m. MELBOURNE, To-day. THERE is every Indication that the waterside dispute, unless an agreement is reached before Wednesday next, when the owners’ ultimatum expires, will develop into something approaching the 1917 dispute, particularly if the shipowners resort to the establishment of a free labour bureau.

A GREAT deal depends on the atti--1 tude of the seamen, who are holding their monthly stop-work meetings at all ports on Tuesday, when it will be decided what attitude is to be adopted. After reading the shipowners' statement concerning the strike, the Management Committee cf the Waterside Workers’ Federation carried a motion that the terms for a normal resumption of work as requested by the shipowners were impossible. The committee accepted the statement as a threat of the employers to create a lock-out of all shipping, and avised its branches to carry out its instructions without fail. WILLING TO CONFER In a letter to the shipowners, however, the committee states that it is still willing to confer with a view to drafting an agreement to cover every phase of the industry. After stating the terms on which the committee is

prepared to negotiate, the letter adds: “Subject to these conditions being observed, we are-prepared to enforce com* pliance with the agreement, but this committee is not prepared to ‘police* what is obviously an obsolete and inefficient award.”—A. and N.Z. SERIOUS DELAY DISPUTE AT BRISBANE Reed 9.14 a.m. BRISBANE, To-day. The overtime strike is seriously delaying the departure of all shipping. A fresh dispute has arisen, the watersiders refusing to work a cargo of cement on the steamer Talroa unless they are paid an extra shilling an hour.

The agents of the steamer are referring the dispute to the Board of Trade.—A. and N.Z.