SOME WATERSIDE WORKERS' VIEWS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14810, 30 October 1913, Page 8

SOME WATERSIDE WORKERS' VIEWS.

Speaking to a representative of "Th© Press last night, several waterside workers stated emphatically that not ten per cent, of the members of tho Lyttelton Union were in favour of a strike. They said that the union funds were not at all in a flourishing condition, and the individual members were all more or less "hard up" after a bad winter, and the general slackness of work. One of them went so far as to say that if a strike was called, there would be somo startling developments in Lyttelton. He predicted that a large number of tho men opposed to a strike would secede from the ranks-of the present union, and would take steps to form a new union in the Port. Practically every man spoken to viewed the situation with fjloomy forebodinas. It was all very well for the younger "hot heads" to be thirsting for trouble, but in the Lyttelton Union there was a very largo proportion of sober-minded men with families dependent on them. A strike would hit these men very, very hard, and would spell ruin to many. Those who had been working hard to get homes of their own, and who were, looking forward to a cood season with big paydays to-help them out after a bad winter, would be badly off in the event of a 6trike.