BIG STRIKE GOES ON

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 219, 5 December 1927, Page 9

BIG STRIKE GOES ON

ADDITIONALJESSELS TIED UP DISRUPTION OF INDUSTRY FIFTEEN THOUSAND MINERS IDLE LATEST reports from Australia state that the shipping strike is unchanged. Maritime trade is paralysed and many industries are seriously affected. Fifteen thousand miners are idle in New bouth Wales, and it is estimated that within a week 45,000 workers will be unemployed. By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright.

Reed. 10.12 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. 'J'HE strike position in Sydney is unchanged. There is plenty of free labour offering, but as a bureau has not yet been established, it was refused. Several additional vessels were tied up during the week-end. There %vere only two departures, and in both instances much cargo had to be left behind. The liner Maloja, due at Sydney to-day, is already four days late, and was compelled to bring cargo, which it was intended to land at Melbourne, to Sydney. STRICKEN COALFIELD The Watersiders' Federation claims that there is no justification for the shipowners laying up all ships because the wharf labourers refused to work overtime. It contends that the award makes it optional for the men to refuse to work after 5 o’clock in the evening, and by refusing overtime they are not violating the award. As a result of the shipping strike, only two out of 40 coal mines in the northern fields will be working to-day, making idle 15,000 miners, while 3,000 miners are unemployed in the southern field. It is anticipated that by the middle of the week 45,000 workers will be unemployed in New South Wales and Victoria. A number of representatives of the Overseas Shipping Association yesterday departed for Melbourne, where an important conference will be held to discuss the strike position. The effects of the strike are already beginning to be severely felt outside direct shipping occupations. Carting and other firms are largely reducing their hands. Reed. 10.30 a.m. BRISBANE, To-day. The secretary of the Cairns branch of the Watersiders’ Federation has received notice from the Management Committee of the Federation that when the steamer Kallatina arrives she is to be worked overtime if necessary.—A. and N.Z. BRITISH SEAMEN’S POLICY ADVICE TO CARRY ON Reed. 11.50 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. Mr. Jarman, secretary of the Liverpool Branch of the Seamen's Union, has gone to London to disetiss the Australian deadlock with Mr. Havelock Wilson, president of the Federated Seamen’s Union. Mr. Jarman says: “We will advise our members in Australia to carry on. The Labourites are unlikely to be successful in pulling them out, after their treatment in the former strike. Some are still stranded in Australia.” British and foreign shipowners trading with Australia have issued a statement in which they say that Australia will, in a short time, be completely isolated. They assert that the present deadlock was forced upon them by the Waterside Workers’ Federation treating the conditions of the Arbitration Court contemptuously. The statement says the shipowners have no wish to prolong the stoppage, but unless the men are prepared to accept the conditions laid down by the Court, it will be necessary, in order to prevent a complete paralysis of trade, to take prompt steps to obtain any labour, including waterside workers, if any are willing, which may come forward on the terms of the awards. The British Seamen’s Union and Transport Workers’ Union have adopted a wait-and-see attitude in connection with the Australian strike. Neither union has, up to the present, received official neivs from Australia, and does not contemplate any action.— A. and N.Z.

MOVE FOR SETTLEMENT CLAIM BEFORE COURT EACH SIDE TELLS ITS STORY Received 10.30 a.m. MELBOURNE, To-day. There is much speculation regarding the possibilities of the hearing of the plaints of both parties in the dispute, before Judge Beeby, in the Arbitration Court to-day, as when Judge Beeby had the case of the men before him some months ago he refused to listen to them until they agreed to work under the terms of the award. The first definite move in the way of a settlement of the waterside workers’ strike was made on Saturday by Mr. Croft, seci#!ary of the Federal Trades Union Cffinmittee, who telegraphed to the Prime Minister, Mr. S. M. Bruce, offering t.o give all possible assistance to-morrow to secure an amicable settlement. Cross plaints by the Waterside Workers’ Federation and the Commonwealth Steamship Owners’ Association and other shipowners involved, will be mentioned in the Federal Arbitration Court, at Melbourne. It is understood the following terms of settlement are to be suggested unofficially by the trades union mediators to the court officials. That the overtime strike be de- . dared off; that the men resume work at all ports under award conditions; that the question of one or two calls for labour each day be left to the Board of Reference; and that the Court hear immediately the men’s log claims. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

The Management Committee of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, in an official statement, says it has accepted the challenge of the shipowners and will use all the forces at its command to support its position. The statement adds: “The Committee of Management has made every endeavour to localise the dispute to its own occupations.” After dealing with the attitudes of tlje two sides to the dispute, the statement continues: “The shipowners, to cover up the weakness of their position and to confuse the public mind as to the issue, have launched what they are pleased to call an ultimatum, which is the direct result of their failure to stampede our members.” The crews of vessels are being paid off as they reach port. The steamer Port Denison left for New Zealand on Friday.—A. and N.Z. POSITION AT OTHER PORTS AN OVERTIME TEST Reed. 10.30 a.m. ADELAIDE, To-day. The watersiders claim that as the men offered to work coastal vessels on Saturday, and none of them were picked up, the owners had instituted a lockout. All coastal shipping is now idle. Another large carrying firm gave all its employees notice of dismissal on Saturday.

Wharf labourers attended the calls for labour on Saturday, but their services were not required. While the men are obeying the orders of the Board of Management of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, they appear individually to have little heart in the struggle.—A. and N.Z.