THE MELBOURNE STRIKE

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 5401, 22 January 1886, Page 2

THE MELBOURNE STRIKE

Melbourne, January 12. ■ The wharf laborers' strike has now assumed a new phase, and there is every probability of its leading to very serious complications. On Saturday the men's faces alongside the wharf betokened they had secured a victory. : The men who had been brought from Adelaide and Sydney had listened to the representations of the local wharf laborers of the Union, and dissatisfaction had appeared among these men on the previous night while being detained on board the steamer Corrangamite. They 'had expressed themselves as "very dissatisfied at being kept on board all night, as they said, " Like a lot convicts." On Friday night the men had been , asked to commence work, baskets being handed round, but this they refused to do. Early on Saturday morning they haled a waterman's boat, and set about

:tv -*eleasing themselves in spite of the rexnonßtiance of the officers of the ship.. When the boat left the ship it was by a cutter containing the Secre- '• tary of the Wharf Laborers' Union. When the news was known that the new arrivals had agreed to join the Union they were received with cheers by a^ crowd which had assembled on the Wflliamstown Pier, and the men were escorted to Melbourne by train. The Union has, so far, provided all these men with board and lodging. As far as can be gathered, these laborers had not signed any agreement, some of them declaring that they had no Intention of working at all, but simply took a cheap -trip to Melbourne. Having -secured the Corangamite contingent of whttrf laborers, jthe^Union prepared to receive the Gambier from Sydney, which arrived at Williamsfcown early on Saturday. None but the Press and owners boing allowed to go aboard, circulars were surreptitiously conveyed to the ship-in-forming tha men of the position of affairs, and calling on them to support the Union men; this they agreed to do, and immediately on being landed were conveyed to hotels, and since then have been supported at the expense of the Union. Immediately the ship-owners heard of this they telegraphed to the Union Steamship •Company at Dunedin — "The fifty men engaged in Adelaide having been enveigled away, the Company wishes torengage another hnndred men, arid will probably require a third lot." Letters have been receiAed from men out of employment in Tasmanie and some parts of Victoria, asking for work, and engagements have been offered to* these men for three months. Work at the wharves is pioceeding without much hindrance, the steamer Leura getting away on Saturday with 800 tons of cargo, which had been put into the hold by a party of non-union men. A deputation of the Committee of the Employers' Union waited on Mr M'llwraith, a ; shipowner, who had agreed to the men's terms, asking him to give up the position he had taken up. The Seamen's Union held' a meeting last night to consider a proposal to call its members out of the steamboats to assist the wharf laborers. The co-operation of the Federated Seamen's Union of New South Wales, South . Australia, Queensland, and New Zealand will be asked for, and in the event of a favorable reply being received from the majority of the uniors, the crews will then give twenty-four hours' notice, and leave their ships. At this meeting the greatest hostility was manifested against Mr Bruce Smith, of the firm of Howard, Smith and Sons, and a suggestion to boycott ships belonging to that firm was received with approval. The seamen expect that when they leave the steamers the firemen, cooks, and stewards will follow their example.