"OUT OF HAND"

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

"OUT OF HAND"

UNION AND EMPLOYERS CONFERENCE NOW ON. After the meeting this morning and the trouble about other men being engaged on' board the ships, the executive, consisting of Messrs. F. Curtice, G. G. Farland, and G. Bruce, called on Mr. W. A. Kennedy, as representing the employers, and pointed out to him the position that had arisen. They urged j that the men should be reinstated on the ships on which they had been working the day before. In replying, Mr. Kennedy pointed out that the men had terminated their agreements, and the employers were then at perfect liberty to engage any new men they chose. This the employers did selecting the men they thought proper to resume the work that had been i dropped. This was a matter that was dealt with by individual employers concerned. They could give their own opinions on the matter, but they would not necessarily be the official opinions of the committee, as such. That committee would meet later. The reply of the union executive to Mr. Kennedy when he had explained that individual action had been taken by employers in connection with the re-engagement of labour at 10 o'clock to-day was to the effect that, unless the demand of the men to be reinstated was agreed to, work would ceaseIF THE MEN DID NOT RESUME. Mr. Kennedy then pointed out that if that happened— if the men did not resume after 1 o'clock — then such action , would greatly influence the decision that j the employers would come to when meeting later in the day. "The employers," added Mr. Kennedy, "are already now thoroughly at exasperated by the gross and flagrant breach of the agreement that has been made — the agreement ar rived at between the Waterside Workers' Union and the employers." SOME MEN BEYOND CONTROL. It was made quite clear to Mr. Kennedy during the interview, we understand, that a number of the men were beyond the control of thei'* own executive. The employers, on the other hiindj arp thoroughly exasperated by the position that has resulted from this morning's proceedings.