SHIPPING STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 17 June 1911, Page 5

SHIPPING STRIKE.

« ■ SHIPOWNERS EXPECT AN EARLY END. LITTLE ENTHUSIASM. . Dy TelCKrapU—Press Association—Oopyrlcht London, Juno' 15. It is announced in connection with the international seamen's strike that tho Seamen's Union has arrived at a settlement witli tho White Star Company. The White Star Company, in order that the new leviathan Olympic should proceed on her maiden trip to New York yesterday, met tho strikers' demands. Tho company, however, has temporarily laid up the steamer Majestic, which runs between Liverpool rind New York. Tho shipowners at Liverpool have consented to .negotiate with the men's representatives. The Shipping Federation has stationed the steamer Spero in Hull Roads as a depot from which to supply men required. It is expected it will be some days before tho strike has reached its maximum force, as tho men havo been ordered to fulfil outstanding engagements. Tho shipowners state that they anticipate a merely slight inconvenience for a few days; they are convinced that the respectablo seafarers will keep aloof from tho movement, because it is largely supported by loafers and others who rarely go to sen. No particular enthusiasm is being shown in London. Chincso crews, when signing on at Barry, were afforded police protection. HISTORY OF THE DISPUTE. At its meeting at Copenhagen in August last, the . International Transport Workers' Federation "unanimously decided," to quote tho words of the dispatch which appeared in "The Times" of tile following day, "on an international shipping strike, because of the owners' refusal to discuss the proposals- of the seamen's unions in lluropc for the establishment of the Conciliation Board, the date and time to be kept socret by the men's leaders." This decision, "The Times" Copenhagen correspondent declared, 'was a triumph for tho policy advocated by Mr. Havelock Wilson, of the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union of Great Britain and Ireland. •

The organisations affiliated to the International Transport Workers' Federation include tlio Seamen's Unions of Great Liritain, America, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and Spain; and it is urged (says "The Times") that, by the terms of the Copenhagen resolution, the members of these bodies are committed to a policy of organised effort, involving evan the grave step of calling an international strike if that were deemed necessary and advisable, in order to secure better terms and conditions of employment for seafarers. In all there were ■10 delegates present at the conference, and they represented 321.810 members, including, general transport workers, Seamen, dockers, and railway servants. So far as British seamen are concerned, one of the chief causes of complaint is said to bo the practice of paying off men at any port in which it may suit the convenience of the owner .or captain to change the personnel of the crew-instead of at the port in which they "signed on." It is asserted that by this practice men are often left stranded in a strange port, and that they have no means of redress against the owners. A further complaint is said to be the lack of proper sanitary accommodation in the forecastle, in which is included the absence of a bath for tho men, and allegations are also made against the finality of the food and the character of the cooking. It is admitted that tho Merchant Shipping Act of 190G improved the 's«.lo of diet, but it is contended that there are no means of enforcing its observance, and that tho men are entirely dependent in this respect upon the goodwill of tho ship's "husband" or the captain. Tho charge is made that, if a man insists on the improved scale of diet, ho is "blacklisted," his ticket is marked, and the officials of tho Dock Workers' Union allege that, in consequence, the man finds it" very difficult, if not impossible, owing to tho complete organisation of the shipowners, to get a berth in another ship. As a result of these and other forms of what the union describe as "victimisation," it is said that British' seamen are being squeezed out of tho mercantile service, and that their places are being taken by Chinamen, other Asiatics, and tho lowest types of Europeans.