WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 12 January 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

WATERSIDE WORKERS. NEW AGREEMENT. ' (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Jan. 10. No date has yet been announced for the conference between the waterside r 1 workers and the .shipowners for the discussion of a new agreement between them to take the place of the one that expired at the end of last month; but it is expected that a meeting will be arranged in the course of a few days, and that both parties will be found in a conciliatory mood. The old agreement, which, of course, continues in operation until a new one is adopted, according to the character of the work, provides for rates varying from 1/7 to 2/.'! per hour, for ordinary time, from ,2/5 and 3/4 for overtime up to 10 p.m., and from 2/S to 3/6 for overtime Ijctween 10 p.m. and S a.m. It is understood that the men are now asking for a minimum of 2/2 per hour for ordinary time and a proportionate increase in the other payments, and that the employers are prepared to concede 2/-. Whether or not the differences of the . parties can be bridged at the approaching conference remains to be seen, but it is safe to say that neither the employers nor the men are anxious for a conflict at the present time,, and that their representatives will meet with an earnest desire for an amicable settlement. STRIKE RUMOURS. The delay in fixing up the waterside workers' agreement has given the gossips an opportunity to keep their story concerning an impending strike in circulation, and now they are reiterating a very substantial account of what happened on the West Coast a few weeks ago when the miners suddenly ceased work and then just as suddenly took up tools again. The miners, according to these epiidnuncs, were anxious to promote a great industrial conflict over the conscription issue and to let the world at large see their liberties were not infringed at the bidding of the military authorities. But the watersidcrs, seeing that a strike threatening the Dominion's obligations to the Empire would obtain no sympathy from the great mass of the people, refused to co-operate with the miners and induced them to return to their work pending the result of their own negotiations with the employers. It is now held by the gossips that if the former do not get what they want from the ship owners they will take whatever steps they may think necessary to enforce their demands. THE MEN'S VIEW.

The story appears -to bold together well enough So far as can be judged from what occurred on the West Coast at the time. The miners went out precipitately and for no reason that could be well defined, and returned just as precipitately without offering any explanation. The whole business was a mystery lending itself to the freest .speculation. But reliable men among the waterside workers, speaking with some authority, positively deny the existence of a conspiracy between the two unions to enforce their individual demands. They frankly admit that the men want to get the full market value of their labour —a value which the employers, perhaps, will not assess as high as the men do —but they insist that no organised body of workers is anxious to bring about industrial strife at the present juncture. Their contention, based on statistics which they quote as glibly as does the most figuresaturated economist in the land, is that the cost of living, especially in the seaports of the Dominion, has mounted up at such a rate that the present average wage is utterly inadequate to meet the needs of the man with a family. On this contention they take their stand.