WATERFRONT TROUBLE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 277, 3 November 1924, Page 5

WATERFRONT TROUBLE.

NO OVERTIME AT NEWCASTLE COAL INDUSTRY THREATENED. (Received 3. 10.20 a.m.) Newcastle, Nov. 3, Grave fears for the future of the coal industry in the northern districts and the shipping activities of the port of Newcastle have been occasioned by the decision of a meeting of Newcastle coal trimmers that from Tuesday next no overtime will be worked and coalloading at cranes will cease at four p.m. It is stated in well-informed circles thta if this decision is carried into effect, not only will the northern coal inindustry be completely disorganised within a week, but the port will practically be at a standstill. At present the cranes are worked continuously irom 6 o’clock on Monday morning till late on Saturday. MEETING OF SYDNEY WORKERS. Sydney, Nov. 2. In connection with the waterfront trouble a large meeting of the Waterside Workers’ Federation in Sydney resolved that no member of the federation work on any ship or wharf after five in the evening until all members of the federation are employed throughout Australia, and that all members working through the bureau be withdrawn and take their places at the dock gates with their fellow workers. The resolution operates from to-day. STRIKE DEPRECATED AT MELBOURNE. Melbourne, Nov. 2. Meetings ofi wharf labourers and stevedores in Melbourne discussed the Sydney proposal for a waterfront strike. Union officials urged that the proposal would result in a general upheaval and they did not want to invite a repetition of the 1917 defeat. There was a good deal of dissent from this attitude but finally it was resolved that the time would not be ripe for a strike until all constitutional methods of reaching an adjustment had been exhausted.