BOOTMAKERS' STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 93, 23 April 1891, Page 3

BOOTMAKERS' STRIKE.

About two hundred operative bootmakers are still out on strike, with the object of compelling the Boot Manufacturers' Association to adopt a wage statement drawn up at the recent Wellington Conforonce. The Association have remained firm in their determination to pay their employees according to v local statement, in which tho rates are lower than those paid in the South, on the ground that the class of work required here is different. Several efforts have been made to effect a compromise, but without success. On April Ist a deputation from the Operative Bootmakers' Union interviewed Air J. M. Shera, M.H.R., and laid before him a statement of their side of the dispute- At thia meeting a letter from the Employers' Association was read, stating that the manufacturers were prepared loucquiescoin any fair settlement arrived at by a joint Committee of members of the Employers' Association, Trades and Labour Council, Knights of Labour, and Operative Bootmakers. Mr King thereupon road a resolution, passed by the Employers' Association, setting out that having heard tho statement of the boot manufacturers, that Association considered that tho circumstances did not warrant the advance of wages demanded, and would be disastrous to the boot trade. At tho conclusion of tho interview Mr Shera promised to do what he could to effect a settlement, and subsequently he wrote to both parties to the dispute, suggesting a conference of three members from each side and three others. In reply Mr C. B. King, President of the Operatives' Association, wrote declining proposals, but subsequently tho Secretary, Mr VV. L: Harding, wrote agreeing to the proposal and fixing a date for the conference. The Secretary of the Auckland Employers' Association wrote stating that as the operatives had passed a motion daclining to entertain proposals for arbitration or conciliation from any source such a conference as that proposed would be useless.- air Shera was unwilling to accept this as final, and addressed himself to the Boot Manufacturers Association direct. After a good deal of further correspondence, the Manufacturers' Association declined any further proposals for conciliation and publicly advertised for free labour, and the Union operatives continue on strike. They have a large fund for payment of strike pay, and are receiving substantial financial assistance from the South, so that the strike is likely to be prolonged indefinitely. The efcriLe applies only to the Boot Manufacturers' Association, which comprises about a dozen large local firms. Several other firms included in the Federated Boot Manufacturers' Association have agreed to the Union statement and are employing Union operatives. The Canterbury Employers' Association have telegraphed to the Employers' Association at Auckland requesting them to use their influence to obtain an amicable settlement of the difficulty in the boot trade by persuading the manufacturers to accept the statement agreed on at the Wellington Conforeuce.