WATERSIDERS' UNION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1926, Page 16

WATERSIDERS' UNION.

.To t_e Editor) "Sir,—Under the above heading there have appeared in your columns during the last few weeks a number of letters. One noticeable feature of the whole of them has been that they have been anonymous. When persons boast in print of being " staunch unionists " and being " connected ■with many labour movements,'' and omit to let the public know their names, readers will form their own conclusions as to the high credentials they give themselves. It is well to remember that officials of unions are the servants and not the masters of the men who elect them. It is not a good practice for union officials to discuss the affairs of their unions publicly unless instructed to do so. I have been instructed to place before your readers the facts as to membership of the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union, and, briefly, the main reasons which led up to the present position. The uniou is not closed in the sense of arbitrarily refusing to admit new members. It is merely limited to a certain agreed number of members, and, if at any time the membership drops below that number, others will be admitted at least up to the limit. ! This-is in accordance with the Dominion award, and the registered rules of the 1 union. It is a new thing so far as ; New Zealand is concerned, and conserva- • tive-minded people will naturally view it with suspicion or downright hostility. Like most new departures, there are ; substantial reasons for it. There is only a certain amount of work to be done on the waterfront, although that • mount fluctuates more rapidly than in other industries. Therefore there is ■ only a possible livelihood for a certain number of persons there. The number of men required to work the , port at all times, except periods of . . exceptional congestion, was agreed upon ' after careful examination and lengthy discussion between the employers and workers. At the time of the agreement the number of members in the union was much higher than the agreed number, and is still so. When an exceptional amount of shipping is in port and the full membership is engaged outside labour is put on. This labour is engaged and paid from day to day. In all other respects outside labour works under the same conditions and rates of pay as members of the union. Before limitation was adopted, from 40 to SO men joined the union every month. The majority of these men merely joined and did not even stay long enough to pay a second contribution. They wasted a month or so of their lives in finding out that there was no living to be obtained on the waterfront, and, in most cases, while waiting for the chance of engagement, they lost the opportunity of rinding other employment. As the . area of employment was not increased by the increase of the number seeking it, those who did, after a struggle, succeed in remaining, merely displaced, someone else, who had to go elsewhere. ■ In the process of securing a footing by dislodging someone else both the displaced and the displacer suffered severely. Labour is picked during a . certain number of hours each day, and the length of jobs ranges from two hours to several days. Thus the lives ot the greater part of the men on the waterfront were a continuous animal ; ■ Gtruggle for existence in hourly com£ftwV° n f Ti th each other - The moral W T, th,a Was incalculably •brutalismg. The economic result was an enormous waste of the time and enenTtf ; •" unliautrf number of men waitinf for ' I,™ tje. continual stream of men coming and going the standing of a waterside worker was a matter of , , guess work and confusion. Out of i=;nn ; ■ or 1000 men. only a few hundred who by long experience superior influence or ability, succeeded in remaining from years end to year's end were recoa. ; msed as genuine waterside workers The other were classed at "the frin~ e " At the same time, this latter section 0 f I nearly a thousand men wore not recog- ; , nised as unemployed. The waterfront ; was regarded as a kind of sink, or cess- ; pool, to which everyone temporarily or permanently out of work gravitated a= a matter of course. This position has ; ' been intolerable for years to those who have had to endure it, and in the interests of the whole community a chan~e was necessary. The experiment of limi- . tation is intended to raise the status , of the waterside worker to that of a per- ; son engaged in any calling; to give some • measure of stability to the socially- ■ necessary, and therefore honourable cal- . • ling of the.men who handle the good« - imported into and exported from the country. There are no more grounds : for asking the waterside workers to . share their livelihood with the whole of the unemployed than there are for asking the workers in all other industries to do the same. There are, in my opinion, ample grounds for asking the Government, national and local, to cope with the question of unemployment. The defining of the waterfront by limitation of membership to the number neeessarv in the industry, leaves those not in the union clearly defined as unemployed . : workers, for whom provision will have to be made by the community.—l am, &**6Sk ■_"_•■• *>SC_*R 4IcBRIN>EV