LABOR DISPUTES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2097, 11 September 1890, Page 3

LABOR DISPUTES.

London, Sept. 7 . The London Trades Council organised meetings on Saturday and Sunday for the purpose of obtaining assistance for the Australian strikers. Sept, 8, The trades congress has decided to boycott firms employing blacklegs and dealing unfairly. Birthwhistle and others consider that unionism has been ruined by the decisions of the congress. Sixty thousand took part in the trades procession at Liverpool. The celebration was a great success. A sixpenny levy on the gas workers for the assistance of the Australian strikers will realise £ISOO.

An association of employers of workmen in the Bristol Channel docks is being established for the purpose of promoting harmony, freedom of contract, an 1 general co-operation for the interests of all.

'ihe Times says that Australia has furnished Mr Burns with a text for a discourse, that it is the duty of workmen to wreck torchinery unless their demands ■re conceded, but it considers that the strikers will cot have it all their own way. Sept, 9. Tbe Maritime Dockers’ Union have cabled £IOOO to Australia. Messrs Burns and Tiliett return to London from Liverpool to-night, They intend to devote all their energies* to the collection of funds for Australia. The stevedores are sending £2BO to Melbourne, and £6OO to Sydney tomorrow.

The Southampton dockers have struck till their onion obtains recognition. Their demand is supported by the coal porters, seamen, and firemen. Trade is paralysed in consequence. Pickets are stopping trains between tbs stations and tbe docks. Sixty policemen, who were sent down from London to reinforce the local division, were roughly bandied, and everything points to a riot being imminent. New York, Sept. 7 .

Non-unionists on the New York Central Railway have armed themselves with revolvers for protection against ill-usage by unionists. Melbourne, Sept, 8.

The Government are chartering steamers to bring in coal for the railways. The Typographical Society has given £SOO to the strike fund. Sept.; 9. Mr H. H. Champion, the English labor advocate, contributes an article to the Age in which ha lays down the following principles ;—(1) That no trade unionist should claim the right to dictate to his employer whom be should employ, and should not claim the right to demand that tbe employers before taking a man should ask if he belongs to a union, (2) That a non-unionist has a right to take work whereever he can gel it. (3) That no trade union should claim the right to apply force, threat, or any form of persuasion other than that permitted by law, to non-unionists. To the marine officers he gives the following counsel :—Write to the Trades Hull, asking that body to allow you to waive the right to combine with them, and write to your employers saying you have done this, and that you trust to their honor to meet you in confidence and treat you fairly, and tell them you are willing to trust them to tbe extent of going back to the ships on the old terms’ while they consider your grievances, and so give them a chance of delaying a settlement and tricking you if they care to descend to such tactics.

Sydney, Sept. 9. Several officers have offered to return ;o their ships unconditionally. A number of brutal assaults on free aborers are recorded.

The employers conference has met, but will take no notice of the present difficulty. They have no desire to meet the meo.

An extraordinary ran took place on the banks at Broken Hill to-day. For a considerable lime the Bank of New South Wales and the Bank of Australasia were fairly besieged by depositors and others. Crowds kept up continual cries of—“ The capitalists ain’t going to fight us with our own money, we will have gold. Your paper is uo good. We will have gold for it.” The rushes ceased after a couple of hours.

Sept.

While the wharf laborers were loading a home steamer with wool to-day a number of bales shorn by non-unionists Wore found; The men declined to load them, and as the shippers insisted, matters are at a standstill. Brisbane, Sept. 8.

Three hundred unionists attacked a party of free laborers tl is morning. A general melee ensued. One unionist was arrested and rescped by his comrades, A force of a hqpdred poljce then pat in an appearance and six rioters were arrested.

The Typographical Sopiely b«s foted £IOQ anJ weekly tp strike fund.

NEW ZEALAND. Sept. 8. The barquentine Carrie Taylor, with food and stuffs from Lyttelton, is being discharged by free labor. The union tnen offered to work her, biff their oser wpp declined. The Mariposa, which arrived from Sydney, was loaded by non-union men without any obstacle, and sailed for San .Francisco to-day. September 9. A private syndicate at Kamo, Whangarei, undertakes to supply the Northern Company with coal from the

field, seven miles distant. All available drays in the district will be put into requisition. Napier, kept. 8.

Three hundred workmen have joined the Free Labor Association, many beinff unionists. Nearly all are in permanent employment.,, Many of the employers have joined. The guarantee fund now exceeds £7OOO. A publican who supplied beer has been boycotted. September 9.

So far as working the shipping at Napier ia concerned the strike is regarded aa having collapsed. Wellington, Sept. 8.

The sailors and firemen on Levin and Company’ ssteamers Wakatu and Queen of the .South, both of which were to have sailed to-day, have struck on account of the firm employing ftee labor. The Premier has replied to the deputation df the Trades and Labor Council, declining, to,raeditate j n the present dispute. He expressed his satisfaction with the very reasonable tone of the arguments of the deputation, but said that any at. -tempo: to mediate would-be productive of VDsatisfactory results until the union uaders -had jdetermined. upon a basis of settlement. Ho asked the deputation to urge their views upon the labor authorities in-Du ne din, when.-bo hoped the basis of a permanent settlement might be laid. The Government would see that the law was administered impartially, and he thanked! the 'deputation for their assurance of loyal assistance in putting down any riotous conduct', Mr McLean states that the Union Company intend to lay up several of their intercolonial steamers until the summer months. At the employers’ meeting to-day the following resolution was passed: “(1) That this meeting pledges itself to retain the free labor now employed by those present, and that, as regards' vacancies in their establishments, they will employ such labor as they require without regard to its being unionist or free ; (2) That as soon as the committee has considered a scheme on the lines of that promulgated at Napier, a meeting shall be called by advertisement of all employers of laber.’’ Sept. 9. Mr McLean states that, the company having decided to lay up half of the intercolonial steamers until summer, he expects that after Thursday they will have to not fy tbe old officers that all vacancies have been filled. According lo the Registrar-General's returns, the assets of the Irades Unions in tha colony amount to about £6700, of which about £4OOO belongs to the Seamen’s Union. The directors of the Gear Meat Company mat to-day, and appointed three of < their number—Messrs Reid (chairman), J. S. M. Thomson, and the Hon, P. A." Buckley—to sit on the arbitration committee which ia to deal with Ihe question - of the company supplying meat to the Union Company's veesela. These gentlemen vill meet gentlemen appointed by the Butchers' Union—Messrs S. Smith (president), F. Moore (secretary), and Durrell—some time this week, and an outsider will be chosen as chairman. Christchurch, Sept. 8. At Lyttelton free laborers were attacked by a few sailors. It is doubtful if any of the men on strike took a part in it. It was nothing serious. The details of the disturbance at Lyttelton this morning are as follows : A gang of free laborers, while being conducted by Mr P. Cameron from the New Zealand Shipping Company’s shed to work the Northern Monarch, were attacked by a score of young men near No. 5 shed. They made no fight, and some were knocked down. Extra police were io consequence sent to Lyttelton from Christchurch.. It is o*id that tbe disturbance was all caused by young men not connected with the strikers, This afternoon some non-unionist laborers attempting to cross the bills into Lyttelton were met on the bridle p&th by a party of men who turned them back after a scoffl I *. A few free laborers returning from Lyttelton by the 1.15 train got out at Wi'son’a Road and were assaulted by a few young men who were apparently lying in wait at a cross read. They got away, but one fall on tho kerbiog of the footpath and is said to have hurt bimaelf badly.

Sept. 9,

There is more free labor than there is needed at the port. Those chosen to work are escorted by the police. The Belfast freea'ng works were closed to-day. The wages paid by the company amounted to £3OO weekly, and the value of the sheep which passed through the Belfast and Islington works in a week wp about £SOO, DplTEDiar, Sept. |. At a meeting presided over, by S'r Robert Stout, who said it wan one of the largest and most orderly he .bad seen, resolutions were carried to the effect that the meeting accord thanks to friends outside the unionists who have supported with sympathy and donations the defence fund ; that the meeting pledges itself to support thqso ont on strike in a legitimate wav; fihal everyone shquld sea their names were on the rolls and record their votes in favor of candidates supporting the labor cause. " v Sept. 9.

The Maritime Qounqil do not intend at present to publish the proposal submitted to the conciliation committee, as was intended, owing to the convening of the Libor Conference at Sydney, to which Messrs Sangster (Victoria), Davies (New South Wales), and Seymour (Quaoqsland) have been appointed as delegates for the council.

The bootmakers' Union to-night voted £(06( to the strike defense fund." T£fE RAILWAYS.

At a public [peeking Dpnedio last Monday evening J\£r Q. Newton (president of the Dunedin Branch p,f the 1 bailey Servants' Union) gffd that before proposing the resolution he held in his band he would like to contradict some statements detrimental to tl • railwav servants that had lately appeared in the Tress. Tbpy were told thiff daj that the railway open in Wellington wpre shaking themselves free fropr-their bond, and the samp thing w as said of (he employes in Dunedin and all over the colony. He begged to deny that emphatically. (Loud applause.) There might be one or two selfish beings who were well off themselves but had no thought for others, but when it was said that the railway npeu were not unit'd, and did not intend to assist the Maritime Council, lie said it' was false. (Renewed

applause.) Tne Maritime Council never intended that the' railway should be drawn into this dispute—and neither would they have been had hot the com* tnissionera forced them. What right, he asked, had the commissioners to say to the Union Company “If your men will not work for you we will send ours t ’ He would tell them why the commissioners did this. They knew that the Railway Servants’ Union was affiliated to the Maritime Council, and that if the railway men were sent to work with non-union ■men , they would strike; and the commissioners accordingly thought to; crush the Railway Servants’ Union, and take from them tha concessions they had recently granted, and, that the,men would accept what was offered to them, The Maritime Council did not intend, however, to call the railway men out, because they recognised that the railways Were public property, and the blocking of the railways would put the public to an inconvenience which they must avoid as much as possible ; but if it should be' found necersary to call on them the railway men would respond. (Loud applause.) He moved—-“ That this meeting record a hearty vote of thanks to those friends outside the unionists who have supported us with their sympathy and with their donations to the defence fund. plause.) ;