RIVAL UNIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 August 1926, Page 5

RIVAL UNIONS.

N.S.W. COASTAL DISPUTE _

SEAMEN’S STRIKE SEQUEL i.

SHIPOWNERS CRITICISED

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGHT. SYDNEY,- Aug. 27. ; o The Industrial Commissioner, Mr. Aria B. Piddington, K.C., in delivering his reserved judgment in. the appeal of the New South Wales branch of tile Sea-A me n’®.Union o f Au st ralasia ■ a gains t t refusal of the Industrial Registrar to register it as an industrial union, severely criticised certain shipowners. He said that all the circumstances surrounding the formation of the New ■ South Wales Coastal Seamen’s anti " Firemen’s Union pointed to" the suspicion that this union was = formed,-not to enable employees to advance what they considered were just claims against the employers, but-as .-a rival . to the Seamen’s Union, with the iilti- r mate object of overthrowing the New South Wales branch of that ■ union, which contained 50 per cent, .of the total membership and had in the.past .i been fiercely antagonistic to the owners. Under these circumstances it was natural that the "owners should want to get rid of it. - : Mr. Piddington referred to the alleged job control on the Ulimaroa,. .Her." said that, apart from the initial* wrongdoing on the men’s part, the responsibility for the later , delay was at least*as much with the owners as:.with the men. Commenting on the general conditions of seamen, he said that tlie present state of -things was. that modern ships were floating cities,"with palatial splendour for the passengers, but in which cities the forecastles were floating slums. . He concluded by summing up the 'prospects of industrial peace in the shipping industry, ' And said that there must be a fundamental alteration of the conditions under which seamen lived. Employers' must, abandon- the utilisation of the processes of law to postpone redress or to escape from the admission “of' reasonable claims, and employees -must' nbahekm. such methods of harassing- trade and penalising the public as were involved in the use of job control and direct action. There was. a better prospect,of securing industrial peace in the'New South "Wales coastal trade if the'seamen’s union were admitted to registration than if it were excluded. He allowed the appeal of the "New South Wales branch of the Seamen Union of Australasia, and admitted the union to registration, hut ordered tliat the order must be in- the officer until the union had lodged a deposit of £3OO as security that it would abide by,-the result- of any order made by the commission.

Under the Industrial Arbitration Act of the State, the deposit will heO released after six months:. ,

Mr. Piddington dismissed the" appeal of the New South Wales Coastal Seamen’s and Firemen’s Union against the refusal to register: it as'an industrial union.. " . ...