SERIOUS DEVELOPMENTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 November 1924, Page 2

SERIOUS DEVELOPMENTS.

THE COAL TRIMMERS’ SUPPORT

SYDNEY, Nov. 5. The most serious development in the wharf trouble which lia s been engineered by the Waterside Workers’ federation in order to secure the abolition of the Shipping Labour Bureau in &ycmey, is the adherence of the Newcastle coal trimmers to the overtime strike, The strike being undeniably illegal, inasmuch as it openly aims at depriving returned soldiers and sailors, of whom the bureau is composed, of the preference in employment which they are assured of by law, the other unions of the transport group are showing great hesitancy in throwing in their lot with the watersiders, and thereby rendering it impossible for the returned sodierg and sailors who are not members of the Waterside Workers’ Federation to carry on their work. This aloofness in face of the urgent appeals to the Waterside Workers’ Federation may prevent, if persisted in, the development of a general upheaval. Even the watersiders themselves are not a united body, as is shown by the action of the Melbourne section in declining to participate in the strike or irritation tactics that have been decided upon by the Federal body. They take the view that the members at that port have no connection with the grievance, and that if they participate in the dispute they stand a very good chance of losing their employment permanently by the formation of a bureau there composed of returned soldiers and sailors. This action on the part of the Melbourne men has caused great resentment, as it more upon the action of the other ports than that in Sydney that the federation relied in securing its ends. However, the men at all the other ports have fallen into line, and, most serious of all, the Newcastle coal trimmers are refusing to work after 4 p.in. The result is that several interstate vessels are being laid up, and other shipping is being seriously delayed. ' It is customary for the trimmers to work in shifts throughout the 24 hours except on Sundays, and their action means that ships that could be handled in a day or so must now wait for a week in order to secure their supplies. Whether the trimmers will be able to persist in this drastic action in sympathy with the other union seems doubtful, as the reflex effect on the coal miners and other industries at Newcastle, even in the two days that the strike has been in operation, has been enormous, and it is estimated that by the end of the week fifteen mines,' employing about eight thousand men, will have been thrown idle. There is widespread discontent at this amongst the men concerned, as they have, not yet recovered from the gruelling time that they suffered during the last coal troubles, and it is not improbable that the trimmers will be compelled to way. This is the more probable owing to the general lukewarmness amongst unionists generally regarding the_ merits of the root of the dispute, and their recollection of the dire trouble in which thousands of men were involved by the watersiders’- hasty and drastic actions in 1917. The newspapers, except those devoted expressly to the cause of the union, unanimously condemn the impudence of a strike aimed against the law and demand that salutary action shall be taken to prove for once and fo r all that no union can toss th© double-headed penny of constitutional and direct action with impunity. Raving gained all they could from the Court by securing the exclusion of all except returned men from the bureau, and thus at long last displacing of royalists of the 1917 strike, the union, it is pointed out, now resorts to direct action for what it is known no Court could ever grant, bo far it is only those vessels that depend upon overtime work for their run mng that have been affected, and for that reason it is not likely that New Zealand ships will be involved for the present, as most of the work can be clone m the ordinary working hours, it is well known, however that in Zt 1 ' to Sain their ends the union is determined to resort to tactics that will al shipping Their chances of success, however, depend upon the uncertain support of other bodies and the Summers"™ ° f sllpp ° rt - of the coal