Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1921. THE WATERSIDE WORKERS' BLUNDER

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 52, 2 March 1921, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1921. THE WATERSIDE WORKERS' BLUNDER

The first phase of tho present waterside dispute hinged, on the amount of the Bonus. The employers offered the waterside workers the same rate of bonus as the seamen subsequently accepted. The waterside workers aeked for more. I?h6re is no dcrubt th,at the emplpyers'. offer was A sufficient offer, and th»t t,h*i waterside workers were unreasonable: Perhaps .that is the reason why the fight came not immediately on the bonus iss,ue,*but on the question of working oyoftime, which ' constitutes the sespnd phase of the dispute. This second Ehfife, hinges on the question whether there has been a refusal to' work overtime—a refusal exce.ed.jng i* character and scape the right of individual refusal conferred by clause 19b of the agreement, and amounting to * concerted refusal in breach of clause 44 ("no r|!S.trictiops relating to overtime work shi*H lie permitted '■'■) and clause 45 ■(no, impuding of work). As the clauses iwere quoted «wid the facts were stated wjth sufficient detail in a contribution o,f the 'Virelfa.Te league published in- yes-tei-day'e issue, we need not expend Apace in repetition or in elaboration of the case. It suffices .here to say that there is overTrhelniing evidence that the refusal to work overtime had more than ■an individual character, and was a concerted move in breach of the • spirit and the letter of clauses 44 and 45. An unreasonable dissatisfaction with the amount of the bonus offered by the employer* does not entitle the waterside workers to break clauses 44 and 45. Their method of doing so, and the apparent motives behind it, do not obscure either their ulterior object ■ or the contractbreaking character of their immediate action. Haying made a concerted refusal to work overtime, they Jiaye fully incurred the obligation to give the assurance insisted upon by the employers— an assuranoe that the conditions of the agreement, including overtime, will in future be carried out continuously and ■without impediment. The waterside workers should retreat from their overtime attitude and from the bonus demand that their overtime attitude is intended to mask- And they should give assurance against a repetition of the ipolicy of trying to raise their pay by the oblique tactics of pin^pricking.

What makes it more pressing that the waterside workers should immediately Tetreat ::rom their extreme position ifi the danger of exhaustion at an early date of certain necessities in this city, and the accelerated approach of the economic ff«*dju*tment, under which all prices— including the price of labour and the price of land—must find a new and more Stable busts. The cessation, of work at the wateirside, for which the waterside 'workers are to blame, is likely to cauee' suffering to a great portion of the public. •Even in times of prosperity—which means comparative independence—no section of workers can afford to carry on industrial war without regard to the approval or disapproval of public opinion, in times of threatening adversity—which in general are times of dependence—r-a union must 'more than ever have regard io public: opinion and papula* welfare; arid even the most militant of unions cannot af ord to fight a. b»d cause \o the disadvantage of the people as a whole (and of its own members in particular. That is to say—the preeent is not a j;ood time to wage industrial war wveD. on a. fair case, much less on a bad one. The best thing that the watersido workers can do ts to give »n j assurance in terms of clauses 44 and 45, and to abide by it^ Their chance does j not improve with loss of time. Delay ( does not make the employer*' loss relatively greater than their owd, but merely intensifies those public losses that exasperate public opinion. Their best chance is to drop all bueh-lawyering on the | subject of clause 19b, and make a prompt settlement, before a more widespread cessation.of work ha« precipitated those retrenchments which most people dread, and which should be postponed as long as possible. The milestones along the pathway of unjustified industrial war are; (1) bad caße, (2) public deprivation, (3) temporary unemployment, (4) unemployment, made permanent, (5) free labour to maintain services essential to the community, (6) collisions between unionists and free labourers, (7) forcible suppression of disorder. Let the chain be cut before the disastrous lower links are reached. There will be enough unemployment without seeking to create more; enough disputes on really arguable issues without manufacturing disputes the face value of which merely serves as a camouflage for another and an unsupportable purpose. It is far better that the waterside workers should be wise in time. Other unions can help them best by impressing this view on them, not by urging them to engage in a battle which they are sure to lose and which may accelerate and intensify those effects of economic readjustment that, are mpsfc dreaded. The first of union interests, and the first of public interests, in the prsn«Rt ovitigitl stags of nuti«r* «conomic, in industrial peace.