WHARF FACTIONS PROPOSED HARBOUR BOARD EMPLOYEES' UNION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1914, Page 3

COMMITTEE SET UP TO FRAME RULES. A meeting of the old and new wharf employees of the Harbour Board was held last evening to consider the proposal to form a Harbour Board Wharf Employees' Union, and was attended by some forty-five waterside workers. Mr. F. Curtice was- elected to the chair. The Chairman explained that, in view of the smallness of the attendance .it the meeting the previous Monday, he had taken upon himself to call the pre sent meeting. As they were probably aware, a deputation had waited on the board with a requisition in favour of the scheme signed by 148 old and new hands. There were a number of men who looked only to the board for work, and he was of opinion that a union of this branch of the wharf hands should be formed. He was one of the deputation- that had waited on the board, and since then he had received a letter asking that the details of the proposal should be forwarded in writing for consideration by the board and Accounts Committee at its meeting on 14th April. It was for the meeting, if it saw fit, to | appoint a committee to draw up a constitution and , draft rules of the proposed union for consideration at a further meeting, which could then town a union. The details of the scheme could then be presented to the committee of the board. A discussion took place as to whether the newspaper reporter who was piesent should be allowed to remain. One member objected to the press being in attendance, as when the names of the speakers at a previous meeting were published those particular speakers were victimised. Eventually it was decided, with one dissentient, to allow the press to be represented. One speaker thought it was unfair to deal, with the .question of forming a union that evening, as he did not consider the attendance — owing to so much cargo work being in progress — was large enough. One hundred and forty-eight men had signed the requisition, and it was not just that some forty members should "Go behind their backs." Another member present urged a plea for "fellow feeling" among the two sections of the employees. It had been stated that the proposed union was being run by Mr. Curtice and Mr. Farland, but this was quite incorrect. Mr. Curtice, they would all agree, was a fair man, whom even his enemies treated with respect, and he was quite sure there was no underhandednses (as had been stated) about the scheme. The Chairman said he wished to make a personal explanation. There were a certain number of men who were being victimised, more especially among the Harbour Board workers, and as one who had worked for the board and who was president of the old union when the men came out, he felt that if forming a Harbour Board Employees' Union meanb the reinstatement of only fourteen or fifteen of these men, it should be proceeded with. This was his soje object in seeking to establish a union, and although he intended to get work away from the wharf, he would feel, if the union were formed, that he had done something for the men, an idea which some of the other leaders had ' ' turned up their noses at." One of the other members present opposed the idea of forming a sectional union on the giound that the present union should give them " a fair hearing." These sectional unions, he thought, only tended to split up Labour. A little further discussion eventuated, and the following committee was appointed to frame a constitution and draft rules for the proposed new union, to be submitted at a later meeting : Messrs. P. Murphy, E. Edmonds, and B. Linde (old hands), and Mansell, Gilmore, and Tout (new hands).