AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN

Evening Star, Issue 19758, 7 January 1928, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN

UNION TACTICS DENOUNCED STATEMENT BY OWNERS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, January 7. (Received January 7, at noon.) The Commonwealth Steamship Owners’ Federation, in a statement regarding the seamen’s dispute, says: “ The difficulty which has been created in connection with the stopwork meeting is only part of a system of militant tactics which is being employed by certain officials of the Seamen’s Union and the other maritime unions with a reckless disregard of the consequences. The question is not merely one of the seamen being absent without leave for a few hours, but it is one of certain officials of the union pursuing their destructive tactics and ordering the rank and file to defy the masters of steamers and owners and to break agreements and articles that they signed, without any regard to the disastrous consequences to the men themselves, to the public, and the industry. “It is quite obvious that such action is subversive of all discipline, and that no industry can be maintained while such conduct is tolerated. The ship owners are making, and have made, strong efforts to put a stop to this job control.- They feel that they can confidently look to the public and the Press to support them strongly in the stand they are making, not only in the interests of the industry, but of the community, which it serves. “It is to be regretted that on each occasion their action has been unsuccessful owing to outside interference from sources to which they might reasonably have looked lor the strongest support in any effort to uphold law and order.”