500 Seamen Storm Shipowners’ Office

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29190, 28 April 1960, Page 13

500 Seamen Storm Shipowners’ Office

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, April 27. More than 500 seamen stormed the offices of the Adelaide Steamship Company in Collins street, Melbourne, today in a protest demonstration. Office workers were brushed aside as the seamen surged through the building, shouting slogans and demanding to see the chairman of the Australian Steamship Owners’ Federation, Mr P. W. Haddy. Desks were overturned and hundreds of papers torn and scattered.

Two telephones were broken and typewriters were knocked to the floor. A large, stained glass leadlight window in a hallway was smashed, and glass in picture frames was shattered.

Told that Mr Haddy would see six men at a time, the seamen swarmed up the stairs to the board room on the third floor and packed it to overflowing. Sc-men packed the staircases, passages and downstairs offices while union officials spoke with Mr Haddy and the deputy chairman, Mr A. Coutts. for an hour. A union official told Mr Haddy: “There is now a state of war on the waterfront. We can get no satisfaction here.” The seamen had marched through the city from the Seamen’s Union offices.

They were led by three "gowned and bewigged and ropeshackled" men, wearing false noses and labelled with the names of the Industrial Court Judges who yesterday fined the union £3OO for contempt of Court. A red banner carried above them read: “The Three Stooges.” Other seamen carried other placards. A committee of 12 sat at the board table with Mr Haddy and Mr Coutts while seamen packed the room above them. When a police inspector and several constables entered the seamen objected to their presence. Mr Haddy told the police it would be all right for them to leave. One union official. Mr Pau! Sommers, urged round-table conferences on wage and working condition disputes instead of Arbitration Court rulings.

“The Arbitration Court is a Court that is fixed.” Mr Sommers said. “There is no justice in that Court.” He said the seamen were concerned not only about low wages but also about “the definite sabotage to your ships and our working conditions.” “There is no solution to the present position when you con-

tinually drag us into Court.” he said. “By doing that you are costing yourselves thousands and thousands of pounds.”

Mr K. Swift, a rank-and-file committee member, said: “As soon as we got' the word that we had been fined it was on. We’ll fight on the ships and off the ships, along the wharves and on and off the city streets. “The Court can fine us until

the union funds are gone and they have to drag the money out ol our pockets and send our officials to gaol. “We are fighting not only for higher wages but for the right to strike. There is a state of war on the waterfront now.” Mr Haddy said the seamer wanted round-table conferences. “We have that already,” he said. “There is conciliation within the Conciliation and Arbitration Court. We agree on some points but where we cannot agree we must go to an umpire: the Arbitration Court. “There are decisions given against us which we hate just as much as you do,” he said Amid the uproar Mr Haddy added: “And if you look at the new award you will see that this idea that your wages have been reduced by £6 a week is completely wrong." Committeemen called the meeting to a close as seamen continued to shout at the shipping representatives.