OWNERS FIRM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1928, Page 7

OWNERS FIRM.

DOWN ON JOB CONTROL

T.U.C. As Mediator In Cooks* Dispute. DEADLOCK PERSISTS. (Received 11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. Mr. J. Tudehope, general secretary of the Cooks' Union, states that the cooks' dispute will be reviewed at a meeting in Sydney to-day. The Brisbane branch of the Marine Cooks' Union have formulated a number of charges against the Federal Executive with regard to its conduct of the Cooks' Union. The charges will be referred to the Registrar of the Arbitration Court.

The chairman of the Commonwealth Shipowners' Federation, Mr. W. Appleton, interviewed at Melbourne, said he can see do prospect of a settlement of the dispute with the marine cooks. The owners are now more determined than ever to stand firm, he said. They insist upon the abolition of job control and of the roster system before they will make any move to recommission their idle vessels.

It is stated that if the Australian and New Zealand Council of Trades Unions formally asks the owners for a conference the latter will question its authority to act, and will point out that a conference would be a waste of time unless the men's representatives could prove they were in a position to control the cooks.

It is estimated that by to-day the strike will have cost . £500,000. Emergency executives of the Australian and New Zealand Council of Trades Unions and of the committee of the maritime unions have decided that the former shall be empowered immediately to seek a conference with the owners, and that the cooks shall be invited to attend the conference and take part in aii future negotiations. The effect of this decision will be to put the cooks in the position either of accepting or rejecting mediation by the Council of Trades Unions, to which the maritime unions claim the dispute has now been officially referred.

The marine cooks did not hold the meeting in Sydney which was proposed by Mr. J. Garden, secretary of the Trades and Labour Council. The cooks' secretary, Mr. J. Tudehope, said everyone seemed to be trying to run their business. He was secretary of tne union and he-would not call the proposed meeting.