TROUBLE LOOMING.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 235, 1 October 1920, Page 6

TROUBLE LOOMING.

WELLINGTON WHARVES IDLE. ALLEGED EMPLOYERS' LOOKOUT. (By Telegraph.—'Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, Thursday. For four days activities on the Wellington waterfront have been gradually diminishing until there are COO men out of work. The trouble began over the (payment of men for ,an (interrupted period of work on the small coastal steamer Calm. It now seem, to have developed until, in tbe words of Mr. Bruce, the Waterside Union secretary, there is a very big dispute. "It has been stated," he said, "that there ie no dispute. I wish to state emphatically there is a very big dispute. It is not a matter which merely concerns the working of the Calm, but a dispute which concerns the right of employers to lock out the men, and work whatever ships they choose. Several times oi late we have had this threat put up to us. Not long ago a man working on the Wairau was dismissed because he absented himself from work for a quarter of an hour. The union was immediately informed that if the man was not replaced no fresh labour would be engaged. At the most the Wairau only employs four watersiders. The employers were prepared to hold up the port of Wellington until one man was engaged on the Wairau. The action of employers in manning some of the ships just as it suits them, the ferry boats, for instance, is causing a lot of ill-feeling among the men, who threaten to decline all employment. Wo have now reached this stage that we are going to fight the question of the employers' right to a lock-out. The dispute concerning the Calm must go to the background." OTHER WATERSIDERS IDLE. Mr. Bruce stated that in consequence of the dispute forty or fifty coal workers who are in no way connected with it, were deprived of their right to work on Tuesday, for the employers insisted that until the Calm is mannethey will not employ fresh labour. The ranks of coal workers have since been greatly added to. Two calls have been made for the Calm, but only three men have responded—two yesterday and one this morning. The reason why the men refuse to accept employment is that the employers have seen fit to issue an ultimatum to the nature of which strong exception is taken. Under such circumstances we will not accept employment on the Calm. THE EMPLOYERS' SIDE. A statement has been handed to the Press by Air. W. H. G. Bennett, manager of the Waterside Employment Association. He says the employers deny that the dispute is of their own making. "We ask for the men to resume, work and we aro prepared to discuss any dispute after the men have resumed work."' Mr. Bennett said in reply to Mr. Bruce, that the employers in past disputes had used _ every endeavour on behalf of the public to keep the ferry services, running, and intended to do so in the future. Mr. Bennett said: "The employers deny that their action can be rightly construed as a lock-out. On the contrary we have asked twice at each call since the trouble started for men, t& resume" work. We have never taken up the stand that the men should be compelled to work on one ship or job. In the Calm's case the names of the men who had been discharged from her were called from the stand to give them an opportunity to return to their work if they thought fit. This is in terms with the decision of the local Disputes Committee, which had decided this point as a ruling for future cases of a like description. Regarding Mr. Bruce, statement that the Calm dispute is in the background and a bigger issue ia at stake, I can only state that, this is a matter of the union's own making: The employers' only desire is that tho Calm should be manned, as provided by the agreement, and that the work of the port should proceed as usual."