FEDERATION'S ATTITUDE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 48, 25 February 1921, Page 7

FEDERATION'S ATTITUDE

NO "GO-SLOW"; NO CONCERTED ACTION. • Although Mr. J. Roberts, secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation, declines to make a public statement, the attitude of the federation is made quite clear in a' letter which he forwarded to Mr. W. H. G-. Bennett, manager of the .Wellington Waterside Co-operative Labour' Employment Association, under date 23rd February. The letter, which was released for publication by the em. ployers, reads as. follows:—

"Dear Sir,—ln reply to your,telegrams of the lOlh and 16tli inst., in connection with the present trouble on the waterfront, I beg .to inform you that I have made exhaustive inquiries concerning the breaches of agreement which you have stated, and I find that: ■' :.' .:, "(1) The go-slow policy was notputinto operation in any port of the Dominion; (2) that the men did not act in concert in declining to work overtime; and. (3) that the provisions of the preference clause have been adhered to by, the Picton Waterside Workers' Union^' V "I may say that most of these inquiries have been made either by myself or Mr. Glover, the President;, ;of , the Federation, and we are convinced'that in all instances the -waterside workers have acted strictly in accordance -with the terms of the industrial agreement. ."I have ,to point out, however, that the. employers have for fiom« reason or otter' ignore 3 olatiee 45 of the Industrial Agreement, and declared a lock-out on the waterfronts without referring the dispute to the Local Disputes Committee, and if necessary,."sto the National' Committee, as haa been the custom for a, number of years pact. Had this been done, under the terms of; clause 45 of the agreement, before the employers decided on the drastic action they have taken, my executive are of the opinion that the present dispute on the waterfront would have been avoided.

"I would point out also that- for the past five years the constitutional method' in accordance with the agreement has been followed by the Waterside Workers' Federation and the shipowners, with the result that there has been no serious stoppage of work on the waterfronts of New Zealand. In this instance, however, the employers of waterfront labour have seen fit to tie op the shipping industryTnrough a dispute which, in ouiopinion, could have been amicably -adjusted by following constitutionali method in accordance with clause 45 o£ the Industrial Agreement.—Yours faithfully, (signed) Jas. Roberts, Secretary."-