WANTED-A RIGHT SETTLEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 48, 25 February 1921, Page 8

WANTED-A RIGHT SETTLEMENT

•THE PUBLIC DESIRES PERMA-

NENCE.

•'-■ ■! "Nothing is ever settled until it is settled right." * We road that the •waterside employers and representatives of the union are meeting -as ■<iv-I)isputes jCommittee to try and settle the present trouble (writes the New Zealand' Welfare League). .The National' Disputes Committee may bo called, to adjudicato pji the matter, as the employers contend tha-t it is a national disturbance and not merely a local affair. Wo, will be very clad if a settlement on right lines can *c effected. By "right lines" we mean fch a basis that will give some assurance bf. permanency and security in the public interest. If it is to be merely a patching up of the differences in such a manner as leaves it open for the. trouble to break but again, a little time later, probably in some varied form, then that is not a true settlement. For some •tune back the public has known of •wharf affairs because of the perpetual friction, the petty disputes, stoppages on the most trivial grounds; and the constant unsettlement of trade and business as an outcome of the waterside disturbances. The demand of." the public is that the game of see-saw between the shipowners and the chiefs of the Waterisiders' Federation shall come to an end. It,! is of not the slightest earthly use of these parties settling terms of agreement, ■either through a disputes committee or otherwise, if such terms are not going to foe honourably observed. The industrial agreement stipulates as plainly as it is possible to say such a tiling that "the federation and unions undertake that no restrictions relating to overtime work shall be permitted." We quote the exact words. Still, in spite of that, it was permitted. It is surely nothing more than a solemn farce'to make settlements that are ignored after being made. Our •contention is that settlements without ■binding security are not settlements proper at all. It is because w« want to see a proper settlement of the waterside trouble that •we speak thus plainly on the matter. >If the contending parties really cared for the public interest, then what we should expect them to do is this. The unions should enforce' a rule, that every man who stopped work in defiance of the specific terms of the agreement be •expelled from membership, and the Employers' Association act • similarly towards any one of the employers who acts in repudiation of the agreement. In this present trouble the unions and federation have said they were not responsible, but they, should be responsible. There cannot be individualism in control and unionism also. If there ifi to be •» right settlement pqw it should bfi by.

an instance that the unions and federation shall hold itself responsible for the acts of its members and the Employers' Association do likewise. There cannot be sane unionism on lines of anarchy.

"I am one of the 3000 odd 'casuals' depending on the number of uncertain hours of work I can get in on the waterfront to pay the landlady for my room, the Chinaman for -my laundry, and. the restaurants foil my meals" (writes "Watersider" to The Post). "Now I am barred from my means of livelihoods And why? Together with many hundreds of wage-slaves,, with no assets but our labour-power to sell in exchange for the necessities of life, I line up every day it the stools, wanting work, anxious to work, and—there is nothing doing. Impatiently we sit on the 'stringer,' trying to figure out the reasons why the employers will not conio out and give work to us willing slaves, bound to the 'stringer' by our economic conditions. Your paper (is it impartial?) tells us it is because the employers are seemingly peevish, because some of us exercise our right, according to our - agreement, not to work after 5 p.m. Well, then, if they are going to fight us on this issue, I, for'bne will fight them back. Eight hours a day is the maximum of my time I will give to any eemployer. A third of my life I spend in bed, eight hours of the twenty-four, another third I spend in the musty, dusty hold of a ship, or stowing meat in a freezing chamber. The remaining third of my life is all I can give to reading, to the companionship of friends, to the enjoyment of life. Do our employers want still another four hours out of the last eight? Take the word of a man with a'hook in his belt, that in their effort to stop trouble, they are going the surest way about stirring up trouble."