WHARF CONTRACTS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1940, Page 8

WHARF CONTRACTS

By Telegraph—Press Association.

WORKERS' ALLEGATIONS NO PROPER AGREEMENT

Wellington, Last Night. Reiterating his allegation that Wellington waterside workers had not received a copy of the contract system now in operation at Wellington, Mr. T. N. Warren made the following statement yesterday in reply to criticism by Mr. R. E. Price, chairman of the waterfront commission: — "At the outset I beg to apologise to Mr. Price for having apparently outraged his fine sense of literary accui'acy and hasten to extend my humble thanks for his kindly advice. However, we are not dealing with theoretical or academic issues but plain facts. "Merely Just Claim." "The union claims that all its members who assist in the work are entitled to participate in any monetary benefits that accrue from the speed-up of effort. This surely cannot be construed into a complaint tliat the blessings of contract do not apply to all waterside workers. It is merely the just claim of men who are compelled to work under this system. "After the system has been in operation some three months we receive, at tlie urgent request of the union, what Mr. Price terms a copy of the agreement. Does Mr. Price imagine that the union accepts those brief notes as an agreement on a matter of such vital importance? The union claims that as a party to a contract the full facts of the agreement should have been placed before it for amendment or rejection and they protest against the arbitrary acceptance of the present so-called co-operative contract. "The decision reached was unanimously endorsed by 700 members at the meeting."