INDUSTRIAL HOLD UP

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 2 December 1927, Page 9

INDUSTRIAL HOLD UP

LATE EDITION

SHIPOWNERS’ ACTION. UNION CIRCLES SURPRISED. GROWING NUMBER OF IDLE MEN BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. Received 1.25 p.m. to-day. MELBOURNE, Dec. 2. The drastic action taken by the shipping owners caused a. sensation in trade union circes. Officials were unable to deal fully with the changed position, and it was admitted that such a serious industrial deadlock was not expected when the trouble first arose. There was -again wholesale condemnation of the tactics of the watersiders in having excluded ah other union leaders from its consadta.tion when the .plan of campaign was being considered. Leading officials were at a loss to understand the stand taken by the. wat,insiders, aucl expressed the view that there was an obligation on the union concerned to immediately consult representativesof other unions which may become involved before direct action was introduced. Pleas that the shipowners should meet the watersiders in conference were again made by the secretary of the federation and the secretary of the Port Phillip stevedores. A number of ships are already tried up and the crews paid off, while many more are expected to be affected today. The cost to oversea owners is very heavy, as the crews have been signed on for the round trip and their wagew will have to be paid until the ships return to their home ports. It is estimated that when the ships were tied up to-day fully 10,000 workers, consisting of watersi dors, cart ere, drivers, seamen, clerks, Custom® shipping agents, coal lumpers and other employees will be rendered idle. It is expected that by the end of the week over a thousand ships’ stewards will also be out of work. Members of the Carters and Drivers’ Union are also affected. Several large carrying firms have already given a week’® notice of dismissal- it is anticipated that more than 20,000 members of the Carters’ and Drivers’ Union throughout' Australia will he affected within a few days. In view of the strike, woo 1 , sales at Melbourne and Geelong have been postponed until such time a® the buyers liave had a reasonable opportunity of shipping wool purchased. WATERSIDERS MILITANT TACTIC 1 CONDEMNED BY EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION. POSITION OF THE MINERS, Received 10.10 a.m. to-day. SYDNEY, Dec. 2. A meeting of the council of the Employers’' Feneration carried a resolution strongly condemning the militant action and desiring to publicly announce that the shipowners have the entire support of the Employers’ Federation in the tight to uphold the law of the land and to see that the awards are faithfully carried out. If the shipping dispute continues, about fifteen thousand miners will be rendered idle in a week. So far about twenty mines are idle in the northern coalfield and the inter-State coal trade ha® already almost ceased. The majority of the workers who have been rendered idle on account of the upheaval are strongly opposed to the overtime strike and it is believed a move will be made immediately to induce the leaders of the watersiders to declare a strike off and submit the grievances to the Commonwealth Arbitration Court. It is expected that a meeting of the marine transport group of unions will be held at an early date to discuss a common policy for the guidance of workers during the strike.

FIRST STRIKE DISORDER. A PHOTOGRAPHER MOBBED. Received 12.40 p.m. to-dav. ADELAIDE, Dec. 2. The first strike disorder occurred at Port Adelaide, where a photographer, after taking a snapshot of a number of striking watersiders, was mobbed and his camera and contents smashed.