MEN’S DECISION

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 4716, 14 November 1938, Page 5

MEN’S DECISION

WORKING OF CARGOES. RESUMPTION THIS MORNING. DISPUTES COMMITTEE TO MEET A decision to return to work on all ships at eight o’clock this morning was reached at a meeting of the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union on Saturday morning. As soon as the men have manned the Union Company’s Waiana and Kaimiro, a dispute concerning which began the deadlock on November 3, gangs will be ordered for the remaining ships. Later this morning, at the request of the union, a meeting will be held of the local disputes committee, which will consider the situation. A conference will also be held shortly at Wellington. An appeal to the public to consider the case of the union before passing any judgment was made in a statement issued by the press committee of the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union prior to a settlement of the waterfront dispute. Claims were made by the union that the employers had been dogmatic and had refused to move from their original stand.

“Far from it being laid at our door by the shipowners that only a section of our union is responsible, we, on the other hand, say that over a considerable period it has evidently been the intention of the employers of waterfront labour to bring about the present state of affairs,” says the statement. “They have succeeded at last not in goading a small section, but the whole of our membership, to such an extent that only one man, out of a full meeting of the union, numbering 1470, voted in favour of accepting the intolerable conditions of settlement laid down by the employers.

After the decision of the union had been announced, the chairman of the Shipping and Stevedores’ Association, Captain R. S. Lewis, stated that the employers were very pleased that Mr. Roberts had been able to settle the trouble.