WAGES OF SEAMEN

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1902, Page 5

WAGES OF SEAMEN

THE AUSTRALIAN AGREEMENT.

A REDUCTION ACCEPTED.

MELBOURNE, December 21.

The difficulty between the Seamen's Union and the steamship owners was amicably settled to-day, when the following agreement w_s signed, on behalf of the Australasian SteamshipOwners' Federation and the .Federated Seamen's Union of Australasia: — (a) That the agreement entered into on June 23, 1902, be continued, subject to the following alteration: — (b) That the rates of wages payable to boatswains, lamp-trimmers, A.Bs., donkeymen, greasers, firemen and trimmers shall be reduced by 10/ per month from February 1, 1903. All articles. signed after December 31, 1902, shall be signed.at the reduced rates, the Steamship' Owners' Federation undertaking to pay the difference between the present, existing rate and the reduced rate during the month of January, 1903. (c) That if the state of the shipowners' trade is such as to warrant a further reduction the delegates of tbe Federated Seamen's Union will meet the representatives of the Shipowners' Federation in June next, or as may be mutually arranged, for the purpose of demonstrating this, but failing any agreement as to.'•»' reduction, the agreement now entered into, shall be continued.. to January 31, 1904. '■ ' The signatures attached are—_t Grayson,' secretary of , the . Australasian Steamship Owners' Association (New South Wales); Peter Henderson (New South Wales); Henry Belfrage,, for the Federated Seamen's Union of Australia.

The terms fixed by agreement are practically those -Sloe- for fey the men at the conference.