Evening Post. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1913. WAYWARD WATERSIDERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 99, 23 October 1913, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1913. WAYWARD WATERSIDERS

t I • "By coming out this afternoon you have broken the agreement from A to Z," said Mr. Curtice, president of the Waterside Workers' ■ Union, at the second " stop-work " meeting yesterday. He tried to persuade the hotheaded men to look before they leaped away from work at the waterfront, but folly and impetuosity deposed prudence and shrewdness, and the result was that the mistake of trhe morning developed into a very serious blunder before- evening. Au agreement with terms very liberal to the men — by comparison with the rates for other unskilled work — was spurned under foot. Practically tho bedraggled document Mas then thrown at the faces of the employers, who had* to recognise, formally, that the compact of January, 1912, had terminated. No doubt Wellington's pqoplg have $>«£•

ceived the queer ggrigm g humour of tho " stop-workers' " attitude. First of all, in a lordly manner, they resolved to hold up a busy port for two hours while they discussed the question of helping the shipwrights. The demonstrators could have easily met in their own time, but they preferred to show their .independence by opening thoir conclave at 8 a.m., to the great inconvenience of tho whole community — for the comfort of the whole public depends on a smooth working of the port. After this ostentatious exhibition of irresponsibility, involving a contemptuous disregard of an agreement, the "stop-workers" expected that not ono of them would suffer for this offence against the amenities and decencies of social and industrial life, which cannot be pleasant when men's word, in a fair bargain, is not thenbond. They imagined that after this wanton interruption of Wellington's business, the employers would be meek and turn another cheek to the smiter. When the "stop-workers" found that some re-arrangements, necessitated by the nonsensical eccentric conduct of the unionists, had been made, they were indignant. Of course that good old word "victimisation" was run out. That was humorous, surely. What about the victimisation of the general public by that absurd 8 a.m. meeting? Then Mr. Farland (secretary of the 1 union), another laconic, or sardonic, humorist, said: — "You can tell the public from me that this is the way shipowners can force a strike. It is pin-pricking, and nothing else." This is laughable^ — complaining of alleged "pin-pricking" after the " Btopworkers" had themselves used a goad. Unionists who had deliberately set themselves to irritate and harass employers and the public by a needless cessation of work profess to have a grievance about "sheer pin -pricking." In a quiet moment, away from the seething waterfront, Mr. Farland may have chuckled over his own joke. ' For the present the Waterside Workers' Union has lost caste. The ink of a fair agreement has turned to water and has evaporated by their act. Tho employers have received cause to have no confidence in any future agreement, unless the union lodges security which can be seized in the event of such a gross breach as the community has just witnessed. The men who have just allowed themselves to stumble into error by the foolish verbiage of a noisy minority hope to succeed by further mistakes, but they will discover that the employers will not be terrorised into a surrender to autocratic demands. Tho strikers will not have a tittle of public sympathy. They hope for aid from the Red Federation, which has its hands rather full with the Huntly trouble. Tho watersiders' best course is to recognise that they havo made a lamentable mistake and to desist from tho attempt to dominate the general public.