CASE FOR THE UNION

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 77, 1 April 1922, Page 9

CASE FOR THE UNION

ALLEGED SHIPPING COMBINE.

"We Kave listened with very much interest, and , with considerable amazement, to the statements made by the representatives of the employers in this dispute," remarked Mr. Young in dei livering an address on behalf of the union. It was worthy of note that the employers wanted to revert to the 1917 agreement, something that was brought into operation during the thick of the ■ war, when it was almost a sheer impossibility to get men to man ships, and when the officers of bis organisation were occupied for ths most or their time in trying to get men exempted from military service in order that they might be available to man the ships. It was exceedingly amazing, also, when account . was taken of the fact that they were confronted with proposals which, roughly speaking, would reduce the earning capacity of some 5000 men to the extent of half a million per annum. It was proposed to place that money into the pockets of men who were de- . sjgnated the 1 employing class. They were co afrouted with that proposition, notwithstanding the fact that the men who manned the guns on the battlefield were told that they Were fighting for freedom and' democracy, and would be looked after when the war Was over. "This is nn example of how they are being looked .after !" The 1917 agreement upon which: ' the employers based, their case was made in the thick of the war, when the seamen's " organisation possessed the unquestionable economic power to extract from the employers almost ■anything it wanted. However, he would ask whether the 1917 agreement conIwined 'anything extravagant ov rjdicnlnns, or anything, beyond reason. The 1920 agreement was made when the economic power of the seamen's organisation was nothing near so great as it wns in 1917, and that agreement put the proposa-Is of the employers completely on one side- The employers' ,present proposals left little or nothing of the current acreement. The owners proposed . to reduce the wages of A.B.s by £4 16s 8d per month, and of ordinary seamen br £3 16s Bd. It was proposed, to take 6d per hour off the sea rate of overtime, and other drastic alterations were eugpested. "In the same breath,", continued Mr. Young, "they would ask us, no doubt, and would exrject, a friendly and very harmonious feeling as between master and man. It is all exceedingly interesting, most interesting." LORD INCHCAPE—A DICTATOB? "So far as the Union Company is concerned, I very much appreciate the heads of that institution in this country, but I want you to bear in mind that to-day we are not dealing with the Union Company, we are not dealing with what-is known as the small shipowners—we are dealing, sir, with the P. and 0. combine, led by Jx>rd Tncheape, who is dictating the policy at this very table, and the policy of tho New Zealand mercantile marine at this very moment. The heads of this company are subject to the head of the P and 0. combine. The question we have to solve in this country, not only in our case, sir, but in other cases, is whether we shall allow a foreign corporation, to come here and dictate to the mercantile iiiarine of Now Zealand. We also want to ascertain tho ramifications of this huge comline, which incorporates the Union Company, the New Zealand Shipping Company, ti'ie Orient Company, the British India Company, and many other companies. Th,» P. and O. Company itself is an employer of black labour. ... I witnessed at this wharf only last week a vessel of the British India Company, which is no doubt part and parcel of the P. and O. combine, Joading wool and flax for the United King-' dom, something that a 8.1. ship has, I

think, very rarely done on a previous occasion. That ship, sir, was manned, by coolie labour. These coolies were getting about 25 rupees per month, and the ship herself was getting exactly the I same freight for the cargo as a ship I manned by European labour." Mr. Young stated that he had noticed at the Glasgow wharf a vessel belonging to the "B" branch of the-P. and O. Company, which had never operated at this port previously, manned by coolie labour, and doing exactly the ■ same thing as the other vessel. This vessel was alleged to be under the agency of the New Zealand Shipping Company, with her head office at Christchurch. These two ships were openly taking cargo from vessels manned by Europedns,. 1 and which' were paying decent wages. ■'Their fundamental object," declared the speaker, "is to bring down the wages of the European seamen to the level of the coolie ." • Mr. Smith: "I must protest against that." ' ' Mr. Young: "Perhaps you don't think so, but that is the object, and I shall produce the speech of Lord Inchcape made at a meeting of directors of the P. and O. Company prior to the war, when he gave that indication. I have it, also, in the annual report of the P. and O. Company." Continuing, Mr. Young said that when he wai in Napier he learned that a Norwegian vessel, on which no one could speale the English language, had been there under charter to Messrs. Wright, Stephenson, and Co. Tile vessel was miserably manned, and her crew were miserably paid. There was not a shipping company on this coast to-day which /the P. and O. combine had not got a "big finger on." Mr. Bennett: "On behalf of the Coastal Company I must deny that." A "PICCANINNY" SHIP. Mi 1. Young: "Well, you have only one piccaninny ship, and she is not worth considering." (Laughter.) Mr. Young said that later on he would endeavour to establish that with most of the shipping companies—the Union Company was an important factor—the P. and 0. combine were large shareholders with dummies operating on their behalf. Mr. Young went on to state that in December the Seamen's Federation had requested the owners to meet in friendly conference to discuss the federation's proposals for a new agreement. On 15th February he received a letter from Captain Petersen,' chairman of the Shipowners' Federation, which declined to adopt the seamen's proposals. The letter added that in view of the present unprofitable state of the shipping industry, the urgent necessity for I reducing working costs on ships, and obtaining a, modification of the present onerous condi^ tions, the shipowners did not consider that any good result would be arrived at at such a conference as .suggested by the Seamen's Federation, The owners proposed to take the necessary steps towards obtaining a settlement through the Arbitration Court. The shipowners, continued the letter, were not actuated by any feeling of antagonism, to tha union, but solely to obtain a, definite and authoritative ruling which would be a guide to them in their efforts to bring abont a better state of affairs in what was at present a very depressed industry. In these efforts the owners trusted they would have the co-operation of. the Seamen's Union. "In face of that letter," said Mr. Young, "we feel we are here under false pretences. We answer them by using their own words. With all deference to you, sir, and with all deference to the system of conciliation and arbitration, we will not discuss this matter here. We shall take it to.the tribunal which they themselves have decided to go to, and when we eet there.we shall ask them to put their cards on the table for public inspection." COSSUXMTXSD AU'i'iON There appeared to have been concerted action on sue part of the snipownei-B (continued Air. HoungJ, for the letups to the^union secretaries at Wellington, Dunediu, and Auckland were wora for word the same. The only exception was that the letter received uy the secretary at Dunedin had the wortt "we" substituted for the pronoun "1." It was also worthy of note that the proposals circulated at eacli centre iiad all been mimeographed on the one machine. "This is a concerted act by the employers, not only of this country, but the employers of the universe, to utilise the surplus labour market to cripple not only the .wages, but the conditions, of working men and women—and this is the democracy and freedom they were fighting for," said Mr. Young in conclusion. After Mi. W. J. Smith had disputed the accuracy of Mr. Toung's calculation in regard to the reductions in earning power to be effected by the employers' proposals, the Commissioner said it was quite clear from the present attitude of the partiea that nothing very much could be done at the Conciliation Council. Mr. Young: We propose togo right through with this. We are going to make public everything possible in this dispute, to show the Welfare League and other criers round the country that' the Labour organisations have nothing to hide. We want the other side to put their cards on the table and be just as open as the workers will be. We shall see, however, how far they will go." The dispute was referred to the Arbi. tration Court, and, on the motion of Mr. W. J. Smith, seconded by Mr. Young, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the Commissioner for presidng. '