TRADES AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 124, 25 May 1916, Page 8

TRADES AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TEAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WBEK. This Evening, May 23—Enginedrivers,

Moulders, Coopers. Tuesday, May 30—Sheetmetal Workers, Painters (Special). Wednesday, May 31—Labourers.

1 SEAMEN.

A meeting of the Seamen's Union was held last Monday night at the request of forty-nine petitioners, to ask Mr. Adam Nixon to resign from the position as preside/it of the union. A resolution was passed to that effect, and Mr. Nixon has handed in his resignation to-day.

The recent decision given at Wellington by Mr. Riddell, S.M., in the case of the firemen of the who gave twenty-four hours' notice to terminate their engagement constituted a strike, came like a bolt from the blue on the seamen. It was the opinion of the union that seamen, were quite within their legal rights to give twenty-four hours' notice of their intention to leave the ship; in fact, a clause is embodied in the articles to that effect, giving the seamen or the company the right to terminate their agreement. If the men cannot legally give notice to leave the ship in a body without causing a strike, it would" be interesting to. know whether the company are, legally entitled to terminate the engagement of a ship's crew before the expiration of the articles without being charged with creating a lockout. The Auckland branch have forwarded a recommendation to the New Zealand Executive Council to appeal against the decision.