WATERSIDE WORKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 53, 2 March 1916, Page 7

WATERSIDE WORKERS.

NO AGREEMENT YET. A CRITICAL, SITUATION. (Special to "Star.") CHRISTCHURCH, this day. A conference -was recently held in Wellington between representatives of the Waterside Workers' Federation and shipping companies. The men put forward a request for an advance in wages. This the employers conceded conditional upon the men agreeing to reverse their decision, arrived at some time ago, not to work after 10 o'clock at night. Some unions accepted the condition, but the majority refused to work after 10 pjn., the Lyttelton watersiders being among the number. The agreement giving increased wages is consequently in abeyance in the meantime. Lyttelton watereiders have decided, not as a union, but as a body of workers, to cease work at 8 p.m., starting from yesterday, and continuing to March S. If at the expiration of that period no satisfactory settlement has been arrived at, the hours to be worked by the men have been fixed by themselves to commence at 8 am., and continue to 5 p.m., and thereafter an eight-hour day will be -worked except on Saturday, when the half-holiday will be taken. If in the meantime settlement is reached on the 10 o'clock question, the men state that they will revert to that hour as knock-off time. The present state of affairs is viewed with no little alarm in shipping circles. Several people are of the opinion that future developments will lead to "bigger things."