SUGAR WORKERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1177, 12 July 1911, Page 7

SUGAR WORKERS' DISPUTE.

MANY NON-UNIONISTS ARRIVING. By Teleeraph-Pres3 Aesociatlon-CoDyrteh* Brisbane, July 11. The sugar-cutters are returning to work in small numbers. Many non-union men are arriving from the south. Twenty-five strikers have left Bundaberg camp for work on the railways. CANNOT PAY A WAGE OF 30s. A PRECARIOUS SITUATION. At the meeting of cane-growers at Bundaberg on Saturday week, tho situation in the industry was d'iscussed with Mr. Tudor, tho Commonwealth Minister for Customs. Tho meeting, which was attended by 500. growers, passed the following resolution:—"That the cane-growers of the Bundaberg district regretted that they were unable to meet tho demand of the A.AV.A. for an eight-hour day and a minimum wage of 30s. per week. ■ Mr. Tudor, in reply, said none of the speakers had declared that tho workers were asking for anything more than a living wage. He was sure that no one in Australia would say 30s. a week was more than a living wage for a married man to keep himself and wife and family. Ho trusted that they had not got to the position in Queensland that they were compelled to say that they expected only single men to work in tho industry.' (Applause.) They were all agreed that 30i. was not more than a living wage. On the other hand, the growers said they were only asking for a. living wage from the manufacturers but could not get it. The growers were entitled to a fair living wage, as well us the workers. Ho tully believed in that position. The growers were as much entitled to consideration m this matter as the workers. Ihe manufacturers had informed him on the previous day that in the circumstances it was impossible for them to pay anv more for c;me. That was the position with which they were faced. Tho industry could not pay tho wage to the workers ?. r i l ll ?° growers, and, considered in this light, they were bound to ask themselves: Was tho industry worth while to keep Konig? No one would sav that the workers_ claims were exorbitant, and tlip growers position also appeared to bo most unsatisfactory. It appeared to him, as a consequence, that if the industry was in jeopardy it was in jeopardy through tho people engaged in it. If the industry would not pay a living wage to the workers and to dip grower, what were they to tell the noonle of Australia, who were giving tho industry n protection of oil per cent., cnmpnrcrl with tho price at which they could purchase sugar from other parts of the world? This certainly appeared to his mind to represent one ft the worst advertisements Australia had yet received. They talked of the "f! population in this country, and did they think that immigrants would desire to go to another country when they saw that an industry, worth from .£3,000!000 lo ,£4,000,000 in Australia could not nay 30s. a week, and keen its workers. }\ere those people likely to entertain the idea of coming to Australia? If lliev were given the extra ,C 1 of excise, would they grant, the A.W.A.'s demands? (Voices: "No, no.") Then all he could say was that the- aspect of Hie sugar legislation would not be altered.