PUNISHING STRIKERS.

Evening Star, Issue 15187, 19 May 1913, Page 4

PUNISHING STRIKERS.

A JUDGE’S COMMENTS. , “Reckless malice” was a phrase used by Air justice Heydon, President of the Industrial Court of New South Wales, in giving his reserved judgment in the prosecution by the Minister of Labor of 49 men Who took part in the recent strike of porters employed at the railway goods sheds in Sydney. His Honor observed that many strikes now seemed to display the character of reckless malice, as if "there were a grudge against society and a. desire to injure it as much as possible. This might, he added, be one of the symptoms which had led an observer with special opportunities like Air Beeby Alinister for Labor in the present Government) to declare that the trade unions here seemed to be unconsciously drifting into the Syndicalist attitude. The fines and costs imposed by Mr Justice Heydon upon the 49 men concerned amounted in all to £442 9s. He ordered that the amounts of the penalties be a charge upon the individual wages received by the men from their present or future employers, including the Crown. It was in truth, as His Honor' said himself, an insignificant penalty after all. The union to which the men belong boast of a membership of 15,000, and the burden of the total penalties when distributed amongst all the members, as is being done, works out at about 7d a head.