TYRANNY OF UNIONISM

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 2

TYRANNY OF UNIONISM

-"SAILORS AND FIREMEN PERMITTING" THE MAHENO'S HOLD-UP. "In olden times a ship would be announced to sail, ' wind and weather permitting.' Now it is sailors and firemen permitting." go said an old shipmaster nit Sydney, discussing the matter of the frequenlt hold-drig-wp ot ships theso days, owing to disputes with or among their crows. From the point of view of the officer who has spent long years at a small salary in learning his seamanship and navigation, and who has waited over years of agonising slowness for tho " spoon-feeding " and "feather-bedding" of the uncertificated man before the mast to-day is (says the 'Daily Telegraph ) something which is humiliating to tho traditions of the sea. The sailor of today, he will tell you, is not a sailor; ho is a pain* serubbor and a deck swabber only—"and coddled) like, a kid." Yet he earns—or at least is paid—almost as much as his superior officers, with the exception, of his captain. And, though the sadtow and! the firemen exf -today are not mariners in the senso that were the mariners of tho old windjammers—when it took real seamanship, not mechanics, to .take ships over the ocean—these men may to-day hold up the largest steamer, causing, delay and inconvenience, involving many -thousands of pounds, if an officer dure so much as flicker -an eyelid at them. At least, this is how tho officer views it. Jack wants to be as good as the'master. All apparently seek to he captains of tho ship. And if they could) have their own way ithere would be some comic opera ships floating about the ocean. 'H.M.S. Pinafore' would be dull to them. Tho incident of tho Largs Bay, wherein the unions apparently took command and ordered tho manning as they liked, has excited keen resentment on the part oi many members of tho Mcrchanit Service Guild.

" But we do not intend to submit to dictation of this,kind," declared the general secretary, Captain Lawrence. "We are not going to have the scum of tho unions thru.* upon us, willy-nilly, and have them nominate their own bo'sun." However, Captain Lawrence said he would prefer to make no further statement fur a fow days, as tho Prime Minister had announced his intention of refusing to en.du.ro any further the dictatorial tactics of the Seamen's Union. He agreed, however, with another ex-mariner of tho probability that if the sailors were given any further liberty they would shortly insist upon electing their own captain and officers on each ship, regardless of whether they were qualified or not, The Commonwealth Line would then become a lino of Soviet ships. THE MARINE ENGINEERS.

The Mahcno'e engineers are solidly backed -by their brother officers of other vessels in port, who declare that to'give way to tho unionistic forces sought to bo exerted on be-half of three insubordinate firemen would be court disobedience, and possibly even, mutiny. ' Tho announcement of the Prime Minister that he will fight the maritime unions over the control of the Commonwealth ships has come as a relief to the officers, who declare that tho crews of many ships have lately displayed a lazy obedience and a thinly-veiled" contempt for authority. A STRIKING INSTANCE.

"I will give you an instance of how we are .harassed in getting our ships away," declared the "wharfinger of a big shipping company,'' who is a master mariner, "I got a message from the chief officer of a steamer, asking me to secure him three good men for his ship on arrival. I secured three men who had been at sea as long as I had, and whom I knew personally to be good men, and I employed them attending to some gear in the meantime. Here union tyranny stepped in. " When the ship arrived the master was informed that ho could not employ them, as they had not been engaged through, .the union. In • other words, the' employers were nob allowed to select their own men. They had'"lo take what union offered —suitable ■or otherwise." UNION DOMINATION.

Another example of this brand of union domination waa quoted, relative to, an incident concerning the steamer Period about-six months ago. A man had been discharged for what the officers considered to bo very good reasons. It was given out that, unless he was reinstated,- the whole <rrew would be called off- .-.- So "that the vessel could crossed on, her voyage it was agreed that the man should bo allowed to remain on the articles until Melbourne was reached. This did not satisfy the crew, who demanded that the captain and first officer should be removed from tlie ship. To this, however,' the company would not submit, and. the crew did not succood 'in their impudent demand.

"Yes," concluded the master mariner, "it is not now ' wind and weather permitting.' It is ' sailors and firemen permitting.'" NO FORRARDER,

At latest advice the Maheno was still held up, and her cargo was to be transferred to tho Manuka.

The dispute is one that has occurred a number of times between the engineers and the stokehold crew. It ia stated by Mr Telfer, secretary of tho Australasian Institute of Marine Engineers, that on the last voyage of the Maheno from Auckland to" Sydney certain <of tho firemen defied the engineers, and indulged invery strong language towards their officers. When the crew came to be signed on again, before the Maheno sailed, these men were objected to. The Seamen's Union insisted that the men should bo re-engaged, and the chief engineer refused to hnrtß them on the ship. Tlie Sydney branch of the Federated Seamen's Union refused to allow other men. to ho employed, and ft deadlock arose. 'Die A.1.M.E., Mr Telfer said, could not permit a chaotic state of affairs in the engine room and stokehold of deep-sea sluips, especially where the lives of passengers and valuable cargo might b«. endangered.