THE SYDNEY STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 86, 31 March 1908, Page 4

THE SYDNEY STRIKE.

The Sydney Morning Herald of the 13th inst. stated:—

"Tho ."trike is probably the strangest that ever x\ as. If it were'not for its most formidable proportions it might have been conceived in" comic opera. The position, in a nutshell, is as follows: — "Two veals ago the Arbitration Court ordered the wharf laborers to work under terms to which from the. first tiiey objected. The inter-State and deep-sea companies never asked their men to work upon these terms, but of themselves ottered better terms, by which the im*u agreed to abide honorably. That agreement was taken to the court and filed in place of the award. The coastal companies never oll'ered better terms and, in the case of the North Coast Company, the unionists refused to _ work. Their place was taken by non-unionists-Lately the trouble spread to the 111awarra and Newcastle companies, and all tliese three have of late employed no unionists at all. The North Coast Company employ two hundred free laborers, the' Newcastle Company about ninety, and the lllawarra Company about thirty. The North Coast Company, at any rate, got on swimmingly with its two hundred, and the unionists saw theineolves apparently beaten by the coastal companies with free labor. "As there seemed to be no way of fighting these three companies, the men, as a last resort, to save the principle that unionists must be employed everywhere, hit on the idea of lighting the three coastal companies through the bigger companies, and striking work with the bigger companies until these forced the coastal companies to give way. They would force the 'offending' companies to dismiss their nOn-unionists by striking work on tho wharves which employed only unionists at an increased wage. "On Thursday morning 3200 men came out. Every snip belonging to the companies employing union labor at a big wage, and against whom the men laid no grievance, lay idle at the wharf. Every ship belonging to tlie companies employing tho labor objected to was worked as usual. Great steamers—tlie Moldavia, the Sucvic, tho new Marama, the Sehwahen, whose owners had given the men apparently all they wanted—tugged sleepily at their mooring lines all day. Tho only ships plying busily up and down the harbor were those of the three companies. If two white lights and a red and green were seen slipping down the blackness of the harbor it was a certain inference that this was a little coastal boat making for her river mouth. The great" over-sea ships were marked only by their riding lights.

■'The men were not united in coming to this conclusion. They voted—l7oo out of 3400—900 for it and 500 against it; 300 vote 9 were disallowed. However, they perfectly understood the principle they were lighting for. Every man spoken to was quite surprisingly dear with his answer: 'it's not the pay we're striking for We daren't let unionist* be beaten with non-unionists- We're lighting these three companies through ilie big ones.' they said. Tile men realise their object, as they probably would in no other country. Nobody who has been amongst them could luive any doubt whatevor that tliey understand it."

At s mass meeting later of 3000 wharl laborers it was decided to resume work On inter-State and over-sea vessels, but to maintain the strike over vessels oi the lllawarra, Newcastle, and Xortl Const Companies.