AN ULTIMATUM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 98, 22 October 1913, Page 8

AN ULTIMATUM

ANOTHER MEETING OF WORKERS "MEN MUST BE REINSTATED." A meeting of some fourteen or fifteen hundred members of the Waterside Workers' Union was held this afternoon to discuss the situation. It was decided by a large majority of those present that the press be' admitted after the minutes of the executive meeting had been read. Mr. Curtice, president of the union, presided. The Chairman explained that the press had been allowed into the meeting in order that they might send out to the world that the waterside workers had nothing to hide. That doming a "stop" meeting had been called by a resolution passed at the meeting yesterday. They had found that the position was .thai after certain men had been put on certain job 3 the foreman had come drlong and put on new men und the men who had been previously put on those jobs were shifted to other work. The executive had decided that a deputation should wait on Mr. Kennedy, and he had ,told the deputation that the local committee had nothing to 'do with the dispute. ' There was no doubt that he • was right, for the dispute 1 had gons pf*6t the local committee and was in tha hands of the shipping companies. They asked him if he would reinstate the men who had beet. Bhifted, <±nd Mr. Kennedy had replied that he could not say whether they would be reinstated. He told them that nothing could be done until the shipowners' meeting at 3.30 o'clock that afternoon. What was the position? He (the speaker) was going to tell those present that they were out on strike. As a responsible officer he said that when they did not go back to work they were out on strike, and they could not spell it anything else but a strike. By coming out that afternoon they had broken their agreement from Ato Z. (Cries : " Good enough, too!") What were they going to do/ ("Fight it out!") The speaker urged that when the foreman came into the room to engage labour he should be treated with the utmost respect. (Hear, hear.) If they didn't want employment they need not roll up. If tho majority wanted to take work then they must abide by that decision. (" The strike isn't on !" : "The strike is on!") I Mr. Curtice further explained that Mr. Kennedy had been informed that if 'the men w«vo reinstated there would be no trouble. Mr. R. J. Seal, an ex-member of the executive, said that when the men on the Rimi'taka who had been selected to fill the places of the other men had been asked not to take the work they had decided not to do so. The same thing had happened on the Warrimoo. A voice: "Are you an officer of the union?" "WORSE THAN SIBERIA." Mr. Seal : " No ; but I was a member of the executive for seven years, and if I had my way I would still be." Continuing, he said he had heard an officer of the Harbour Board say, "It was worse than Siberia." But whaA could be worse even in Siberia than the victimisation that had taken place? He moved — " That if the men on the Wahine, the Rimutaka, the Wairuna, and the Northern are not reinstated, the men do not start work to-morrow." ("Hear, hear," and cries of "I second the motion. "J SECRETARY HOPES STRIKE SOON END. Mr. G. Farland, secretary of th© union, said he had been of opinion that there was a good chance of settling the .trouble as the result of the meeting at half-past 3, but the executive had decided to call the meeting that was now taking place.- The reason was that the executive had no power to call a strike. "It looks as though w© are out on strike though," added the speaker. "No man Should be afraid to express his opinions to-day ; but, personally, I hope that if it is a strike it won't last long. I believe there are better ways of settling disputes than by strikes. If the shipowners say at 3.30 that the trouble is going on. then we are right into it." " MEN WHO COULD WIN." Mr. Tulley said that hundreds of them were married men with families, but it there were a strike it would be shown that they were the men who could win. Did they show a- fighting spirit on the other side? No, they lay dormant. Mr. J. Lawrenson contended that the executive had done what it could. It was the shipowners who had turned them down, as they had yesterday led them to believe that the men would be taken on. The fact that the watersiders had knocked off that morning had constituted a strike Continuing, Mr. Laurenson said that these big fat gentlemen had not had their lunch, and so the men had to wait. "If," he added, "you can hop, in to-day, and stop the work, yours will be the first action and the best. (Hear, hear.) Directly they say we will put these meil on we will start work. Meanwhile my advice is, 'Get into it.' " TROUBLE FORCED ON THEM. I Mr. D. Ready said that the executive i was misrepresented in the report appearing in The 7ost last night. One individual was reported to have said that the men were led by ■ leaders. He (Mr. Ready) did not pose as a leader, and it would be a sorry day when the men were led by him. (Laughter.) He did not like trouble, but in this instance it had been forced on them. Personally, he believed that the whole matter would be settled at 3.30 p.m. Th« men knocked off work to-day for a little over an hour, and yet not very long ago they knocked off for four hours for a. certain purpose, and nothing was said about that. SHOULD KEEP AGREEMENTS. Mr. Peter Maroney said : "My principle is if you make an agreement with men you must keep it. ' If these men (the audience) like to go back like men I will gq with them." (Much disorder,

and cries of "Put him down.") What had the men done this morning ? Struck ! Was that keeping the agreement? Mr. J. O'Neill believed that the shipowners had been getting ready to "freeze us out." The harbour was full of coal, up-country depotß were well stocked, and the companies were of this opinion : "If the men strike — well, let them strike !" MOTION CARRIED. The motion, " That no work shall be accepted until such time as all the men are reinstated," was then put. A forest of hands was held up in its favour, and the chairman declared that it had been carried " without one dissenting voice." The men were then asked what the position of the men on board the boats was. Were they, to "go on" or "go out?" Voices : "Go out." AFTER THE DECISION After the meeting had been declared closed, a section of the men attempted to reopen it, but were ruled out of order, i The men then broke into little knots and discussed the situation. There were not many signs of excitement, the majority accepting the verdict of the meeting very philosophically. Upstairs in the waiting-room the domino tables were fully occupied.