OUTLOOK SERIOUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 March 1940, Page 7

OUTLOOK SERIOUS

MEETING IN WELLINGTON DECISION NOT TO ACCEPT OVERTIME. EMPLOYERS ALLEGE BREACH OF AWARD. WELLINGTON. This Day. There was a definite worsening in the waterfront labour situation yesterday when the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union decided at a stopwork meeting to endorse the action of the Auckland men in refusing to accept overtime work till their claims for a new agreement had been met. In reporting the decision at the close of the meeting, which he described as “impromptu," Mr E. E. Canham, president of the Wellington Union, declined to say what the endorsement meant. The refusal of the watersiders to work overtime was described by a representative of the employers as “not only a breach of the award, but also a breach of the Strike and Lockout Emergency Regulations, 1939." These regulations state that a strike includes “the act of any number of workers who are or have been in the employment, whether of the same employer or of different employers, (1) in discontinuing that employment, whether wholly or partially, or (ID in breaking their contracts of service, or (III) in refusing or failing after any such discontinuance to resume or return to their employment, or (IV) in refusing or failing to accept employment for any work in which they are usually employed." It is understood that the employers of waterside labour in Wellington intend to follow the same course as has been adopted in Auckland, by dismissing men who refuse to accept overtime work. Trouble occurred yesterday afternoon on board a small overseas trader owned by the State. Work was stopped because the man in the ship objected to certain employees of the harbour board unloading trucks. WORK PROCEEDS OTAGO NOT AFFECTED. DUNEDIN, March 11. The port of Otago remained unaffected by the northern waterfront troubles today. There were three over-

seas ships and three coastal vessels in port at Dunedin and Port Chalmers and work was proceeding on all of these.

Members of the Dunedin Waterside Workers’ Union held a stop-work meeting for half an hour this morning, but no information was available as to' 1 what took place. Representatives both of the waterside workers and the shipping companies refused to comment on the new situation in Auckland or on the decision of the Government to take power to control the waterfronts of the Dominion.