"GIVING THE GAME AWAY"

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 52, 2 March 1921, Page 8

"GIVING THE GAME AWAY"

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —I am a wat'ersider, and I waa glad to see the Welfare League^ article against us in The Post last night, because it shows where their writar is. _

A few days since he had a letter in The Post headed, "Giving Its Case Away." He said Mr. Roberts had given hk case away by saying the waterside workers would work the diggers' apples. Well, anybody could have said the same. I could, because hundreds of us have been waiting at the labour stand every day since the bosses • started to lock us out. But I think the Welfare I<eague man gave his game away properly last j night. He has, all along, bean pretend- , ing to be out for the good of the public, i and sorry for the .poor, silly whaifie, i who is losing his wages, but anybody can see now that he ,is out to. twist the whole case, and put us in the wrong, and make the bosses right. Krst, be «tarts off by saying that "overtime on | the wharves is not thg same thing as . overtime required to be worked by : tradesmen in continuous employment." | Of course, it is not. If a man has a j job, and gets his regular wages, he doesn't mind obliging his employer by working overtime a bit, because the work can't be got through in the orddn- ; ary time. But suppose the boss said, i "You can't work to-day on to-miorTO"w, ! and I shan't pay you, but you must j come and stay round an hour or two i every day, and I'll look at you, and per- j haps I'll let you work overtime one night." What would the factory hand ■ say? He'd say, "If you would let the ! works run through the day there would j be no need to work overtime, and' I | won't do it." We wharfies do nob work ; more than about thirty hours a week, j but we are compelled to hang about the wharf waiting for the bosses' convenience (and we don't get anything for that, mind you), and then work when everybody else is enjoying themselves, and have no right to say whether we will oi* no. Thats according to the Welfare League man. But we haws a right, according to our agreement, and we're going to stanal by it. Of course the bosses have locked us out for doing so, but the Welfare League's man put the ■soft pedal on that side, and that's where he gives his game away. We know where he is now. He has been quoting our agreement against U9 for a fortnight. Of course' he has a copy. Anyone can get a copy from the Court, and every wharfie gets one from the federation, and had one before it was signed, and voted on it. He must have a copy, because he says last night : "We (he always calls himself we) find, on examination, there axe twelve clauses relating to overtime;" and of course he finds from them, that the workers are in the wrong, as he has done in every Labour dispute be ever wrote about. But he tries to make out he is impartial, and sums up the case like a judge, (a), (b), (c), right down, to (h), and the wharfie is wrong all the time. There isn't a word about the em-' ployers locking us out, and tying up the coal and the sugar. Not a word. Now, here is where the writer gives himself. away. He quotes clause 45 of the_ agreement, but only half a sentence of it, and he cuts out the rest. He thinks nobody .else has a copy of the | agreement but him. He quotes a couple | of lines, but he leaves out the heading, which would not suit him. This is what he quotes : "The «ssenoe of this agreement being that the work of the employer shall always proceed in the customary manner, and shall not on any account whatsoever be impeded." • Then he stops, though anybody can see that that by itself is not complete. Well, here's the rest of the clause. The heading is : "45 —Local Cbmmttees," and the clause goes oil after "impededi"— r "it is provided that if any dispute or difference shall arise between the parties bound by this agreement or any of them, whether as to its construction or meaning or as to any other matter whatever arising out of or connected 'therewith,... every such dispute or difference, as to the same shall arise, shall be.referred to a committee, to be composed oE three representatives of the union at the port concerned and three representatives of the employers, for their decision. The decision of the majority of the committee shall be binding, and if no decision is arrived at,' then the matter shall be referred to the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Federation and a committee of three employers, and if they are unable to arrive at a decision, either party may appeal to the Court of Arbitration upon giving written notice of such appeal to the other party within fourteen days after the matter in dispute has been ?o referred to th.fi New, Zealand

Waterside Workers' Federation andi the aforesaid committee, of employers." The reason he doesn't quote that is becamse it shows that the 'bosses have broken the agreement, and the law aa well, by locking us out, and he daren't say a word against them, else, I suppose, he'd get the sack. That clause is for settling any dispute by discussion between our side aaid the employers, or by .the Arbitration Court, and) "either party" can 9 take the case to the Court. Now, if the bosses thought some of, us were wrong in knocking off at five, why didn't they put clause 45 in operation, and settle the dispute in a constitutional way? No, they took direct notion, and locked us out, aifS now they are losing £10,000 a day, and we are losing £1600 a day, which we .never had; and there's no coal in the city, and soon there will ba no sugar, and they call that business ability,, and law and order.

And the Welfare League man can't cover it up. But he's trying very hard.—l am, etc.,

WHARFIE No. 3.