THE STRIKE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 103, 28 October 1913, Page 6

THE STRIKE

For a w^ek the business of Wellington has been seriously disturbed by a strike, and tho dislocation of trade is affecting other districts. If the trouble continues/ even without extending to other ports, ( many men, in addition to the fifteen or sixteen hundred members of the Waterside Workers' Union, will either lack employment or be obliged to seek new occupations. Both the strikers and th© employers desire to have tho wheels of trade and commerce revolving normally, as soon as possible. The parties are in agreement on that point, but differ about the terms of work. Th© unionists, who admit that they broke their agreement last Wednesday, have asked for its restoration, with no material alterations. The employers' reply has been that any new agreement, with a preference clause, mußt be registered under the Arbitration Act in order to give a guarantee of observance. The employers' right to ask for some surety cannot be fairly disputed, but it is possible to have differences of opinion on the procedure for binding parties to keep good faith. The Watersiders' Union, as a constituent of the Red Federation, is at least nominally hostile to the Arbitration Act ; even if a majority was actually in favour of a registration under the Act, the minority, with the aid of the Red Federation's officers, would probably block the way to that goaL We do not suppose that Vith the employers it is a cas© of "the Act, the Act, and nothing but the Act." Their concern is to haye reasonable security for the maintenance- of a compact, and they believe, apparently, that the Act offers the most convenient machinery. Can the. leaders of the Watersiders suggest an alternative method of insuring an agreement against more or less fatal accidents? Now is the time for men of helpful ideas, rather than inflammatory speech, to assist in a settlement. This morning it was understood that the Premier would meet representatives, of both sides in conference to-day ; perhaps, before this edition is published, this trouble tmay be on a fair way towards settlement. If Mr. Massc-y's mediation is bootless, and if the struggle goes on, then the arrangements to preserve order and protect persons and pro- I perty on the waterfront will have to be much more effective than they have been. This eerious "hold-up" at Wellington justifies, some of the much-abused proposals of the new Arbitration Bill to ensure that any strike will not be projected on the spur of a moment. The provisions for a conference and a secret ballot are meant to exhaust all methods of conciliation before an industry's wheels are stopped. In the final issue, after the failure of delegates, each member of a. union, by the secret ballot, can exercise his vote without intimidation by any turbulent section. An Opposition organ which has roared its contempt at these clauses designed to delay a strike (in a manner fair to both parties and the general public) rather than facilitate it, has been obliged to practically eat some of its own red-hot words, thus:— "lt is not sufficient that Mr. Massey should sit in his office and wait to be summoned to the conference, at which he appears to be so willing to preside. Tho responsibility tests upon him as Minister for Labour, 38 well as head of the Government, of going into the centre of the conflict and endeavouring to mediate between the contending parties." If the principle of Ministerial intervention is thus recognised, will that journal deny the fairness of the secret ballot?