ANOTHER LINER WORKED BY FREE LABOUR.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14668, 17 May 1913, Page 16

ANOTHER LINER WORKED BY FREE LABOUR.

NEW UNION FORMED.

(srECIAL TO "THE I'llESS. , ') TIMARU, May 16.

Onco again tho wharf was barricaded off at Timaru to-day, when the Kia Ora. was being loaded by free labour. It had been the intent:on of the authorities to employ tho ordinary water;'»ido workers if they desired employment, but when the timo for starting work carno round, tho general body of waterside workers did not put in an appearance, so that tho ship's agents, without any hesitation, engaged fir'ty frco labourers, all that were wanted, and theso men worked the boat all day. Thost! employed were all working men, outside tho ranks of tho Waterside- Worker-.' Union. Plenty of farmors and business peoplo in tho town offered their services, though they did not Irish to deprive thoso of work wJm were in need of it, .and the ship's agents were actuated by a similar feeling. So only working men were engaged. At the time they woro put on, tho waterside workers wens busy in their shelter*»hcd, holding a meeting, and, when in th<« fulness of time, they .again appeared in public, it wa.s to find tho places on the Kia Ora all filled. Tho watersido workers did not, therefore, strike again ; they simply neglected to p,o where thfy could havo got work at the proper tirno, and tho ship's age-nts, being in an independent position as rogards labour, did not run, after them. <Mr P. C. Webb, president of tho IVdcration of Labour, was present with tho mon at their meeting, but what w.'ls dono was kept as secret as tho grave. At mid-day the fifty men who worked tho Kia Ora, held a meeting, and de- < ioVd to form a new Union, and it was <l«y;idpd to immediately tako steps to register under tho Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

(TRESS ASSOCIATION TfLKGKAV.)

TBIARU. May IG. lho Jua Ora, which is loading mutton nnd tallow for London, is being worked this morning by fifty free labourers. The latter held a meeting ab noon and formally formed a Seaside' Workers' Union, to bo registered under thi> Arbitration Acli It is also stated that a big movement is afoot to form and register a Union of tho Slaughtermen who took tho place of tho slaughtermen on strike at Parcora and Smithfield, in sympathy with whom the Timani waterside workers who aro on strike.