The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATE The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1921. PEACE OR TRUCE?

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 59, 10 March 1921, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATE The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1921. PEACE OR TRUCE?

c For the cause tliat lacks assistance, For the icrong tUat needs resistance, '.'or the future in the distance, md the good that we can do.

The trouble on the waterfront has been settled, but the public, on whom most of the inconvenience and lons finally falls, is not informed of the terms. There has been enough secrecy about this whole business to rival the old iulernatiemal diplomacy that Labour professes to detest so much. "Open ciivemints openly arrived at"- is it only fancy that this policy of President Wilson's was widely applauded? In the last few weeks we have seen officials of the Waterside Workers' Federation (littingsabout the country on business, but maintaining Mctternichian silence about their mission, and after the dispute has been settled in secret conference the information is to be withheld from the public- fur a time by agreement between the parties. One mint therefore wait to see the extent of the victory or defeat. A Wellington correspondent says that "the undertaking of the wateri>iders to abandon the 'goslow' policy and to discontinue pinpricking tactics will he recorded, in the most impressive manner possible," which is what the shipowners asked for. He also says, however, that "several minor concessions have been made to the men, which will somewhat improve their conditions of employment." Seeing that the owners all along sought to confine the trouble to the issue of overtime, it will be interesting to see what these concessions are. It looks as if the victory has not been entirely on the employers' side. The Prime Minister appears to deserve a good deal of the credit for the settlement, and one must admit gratefully that as a conciliator Mr. Massey continues to show marked ability. But we must question the wisdom of this habit of leaning on the Prime Minister. It almost looks as if disputunts fight with the idea. in their minds that the worst will never happen, because sooner or later Mr. Massey will step in and settle matters. Mr. Massey is much too busy a man to bo asked to take the place of Conciliation Commissioners and Arbitration Court. Everybody will be glad to hear ihnt this stupidly produced and quite unnecessary trouble is over. The men must have lost quite a considerable sum in wages through their attitude towards overtime, and apparently they have consented to do this kind of work in future. The shipowners no doubt will find means of passing on most of their losses to the public. But thoughtful people will ask how long this settlement is going to last and whether it is a valuable contribution towards the solution of the problem of waterfront labour. The position revealed in the last few weeks has been profoundly unsatisfactory. A quarrel over a public utility arose between parties who were not subjected to any sort of public supervision or control. The harbour works used by the shipping companies are provided out of public money and belong to the people, and the dues levied on the companies for their use are, in whole or part, passed on to this same public. Vet these customers of these public utilities on tbe one side, and the unions working cargo on the other, were, '„ccause the}' had a private quarrel, able to hold up the trade of the community and bring people within sight of a grave shortage of necessaries. The shipping lines concerned in the quarrel are largely owned and controlled in England, and are part of huge "combines." This means that our harbours arc at the mercy of disputants, one of whom i 9 to a considerable extent an absentee. It may be argued that the employers in this case were fighting the public's battle. Perhaps they were; certainly the public would have suffered if the unions had won their point. But we may point out that so long as they thought they could pass on to the public higher costs of working cargo, the companies were quite prepared to give way to the men. The time has surely come when the problem of waterside work should be reconsidered from every point of view. There are two main considerations. First of all, the conditions of employment that make the work more or le9s casual arc admittedly unsatisfactory, and it is well worth inquiring into the possibility of raising the whole status of the industry by making employment permanent. Whatever grievances there are in respect to overtime might be remedied by the institution of shifts. Then there is the question of control both of the employment and of the relations between the men and the shipowners. A plan that would effect an improvement on the present state of affairs might be difficult to suggest, and there would be no guarantee of its complete success, but it is worth, making the effort to find one. The present position is that the community owns the wharves, but private organisations using those wharves are able to stop all work there without any reference to the community and without any regard for it* interests.