ON TIMARU WHARVES

Evening Star, Issue 15240, 19 July 1913, Page 11

ON TIMARU WHARVES

».. :' TROUBLE STILL SIMMERING. [Special to the Star.] TIMARU, July 18. There are indications that the"wharf worker.-, are not yet quite a happy family. A number of- the strikers have been taken into the ranks, of.the new Wharf Laborers' Union, which was formed by the free, laborers during the strike period, and some of the original members of the union are complaining now that strikers are receiving preference of employment. Tho membership roll of the union indicates that there arc too many wharf workers in any except the very* busy times, and employers therefore have an opportunity to discriminate. After labor had been engaged for_ the Mamari this morning one of the disappointed applicants made a. complaint to a reporter. Ho .stated that hft had been one of tho men who had worked the e.s. Zealandic when, the strike first commenced, and was what was then known as a "free, laborer." He had stuck to tho shipping companies all through, and with others had helped to form the new union, so frustrating tho attempts of the strikers to stick up shipping in the port of Timarn. They had stood by tho shipping companies, and had had to put up with all kinds of insults", and were continually the subjects of objectionable epithets. The shipping companies had then promised them that the men who had stood by them in their trouble would not be passed over, but they had not carried out that promise. Ho complained that he, with a. number of others, had not been given any work for the past- Hire.' weeks, while men who had been most prominent among tho strikers wore chosen in preference to them; in fact, they had been left in the lurch, and eomo of them had had to obtain other work, and some were then looking for other employment. All the shipping companies, he said, treated them alike, and ho considered that after .sticking to the companies all through, and so helping to break up tho strike, they were being treated most unjustly, and were not given the consideration they were justly entitled to. Inquiries made by a. reporter among representatives of shipping interests threw little light- on the complaint, Tho reporter was informed by an agent of the Shaw-SaviU Company that lie did not know anything of preference being given to past leaders of the strike, but he would make inquiries and see that thos:: who had assisted tho shipping companies in tiio time of trouble received fair plaV. 1-ho reporter visited the wh-arf, where "aUnion Company's boat is being worked, end was informed that all employed there were members of the new union.'and only about 12 of them had belonged to th'o old union, .and these had entered the ranks of tho new bedy as soon as it had become recognised. Tiiey had been working for the company for periods of from 10 to 20-years, and had given every satisfaction. It was, the informant stated, impossible to put all tho men on at once. A man prominent in shipping circles said that tho idea at present was to eive work to all fairly. There, were married men in the old union who had joined the new union, and they could net be allowed to starvo altogether. The position is uncertain. Complaint is mado by a section of the union, ;md there may bo some, trouble within, the organisation, but it- is not likely to be of a nature that will affect the working of the port. ■