AUSTRALIAN STRIKES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15861, 26 February 1912, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN STRIKES.

UNIONISTS IN BRISBANE. THE SHIPPING TRADE. [Froii Our Oorrksi'oxdent.] SYDNEY, February 16. Even Labour lias failed to find a good oxcuse for the Brisbane strike. The strike was moribund when it was definitely slain by a resolution of tho

Sydney Transport Workers' Council — Ki overruling body representing wharf labourers, carters, marine engineers and seamen—to the effect that a syin? pathetic strike was out of the question. This fatal decision impelled the president of tho Strike Committee to an " Et tu Brute" attitude and an expression of dismay that such "scabs" should be found at the heart of the labour movement itself. Newcastle (N.S.AV.) miners struck a blow only less deadly by a refusal to strike that seemed almost contemptuous. Virtually all was over but the rush back, to work.

As a result of the failure of the strike, ■ and tho arousal of general opinion against the strikers, Brisbane employers are temporarily in a strong position. Many of them are reported as denying preference to unionists, some as accepting only non-unionists, and nearly all are able to make that choice between efficient and non-effi-cient hands which employers would like to make often. Every business gradually accumulates, a number of comparatively useless employees whom it does not really pay to retain, yet whom the conditions or circumstances of service make it impracticable to discharge. Many employers have reason to welcome a, system that would "sack" all employoes every year without responsibility to an employer, leaving him free to re-oiigago those- he really wanted to keep.

Brisbane strikers hare kindly conceded this privilege .to their employers. They have weeded themselves automatically. The good hands, unionist or non-unionist,, will return to work as a matter of course, because employers' competition continues and there are never enough good hands to go round. It is only the duffers who are "in the soup." Unionism will still thrive., because it is impossible to prevent it from thriving, and the hw itself acknowledges the necessity and merit of unionism. But the strike has given a great impetus to the "open shop," and much unionist spade-work will have to be

done over again before the Brisbane unions regain the power and influence they had a fortnight ago. So much for unintelligent leadership. It is to be noted that, all through, the strike, the shipowners gave Brisbane a wide berth, and were careful to do nothing that would give maritime workers an unavoidable reason for striking in Sydney and Melbourne. They reaped their reward in the Sydney* Transport Council's resolution to oppose the" strike. Had a serious at-' tompt been made to laud cargo in Brisbane with free labour, the tenets of maritime unionism might have compelled southern action. The shipowners clearly do not want a conflict with seamen and wh&rf labourers, and seamen and wharf labourers do hot want a conflict either. So these two "big dogs " came to a tacit understanding to let tho "general strike" alone and avoid occasions of quarrel. The maritime workers attack tho weakest spot in employers' armour. In many avocations it is comparatively easy'to find free labourers. A strike of clerks is scarcely conceivable. A strike of tram-drivers can be overcome. In a strike of printers the masters arc apt to tako'off their coats. Almost anybody can be a special constable. But few enthusiasts are willing to devote themselves on the altar of capital by lumping coal on a. plank. It is recognised that there are some avocations in which unionists must be putup with after all. Quaintly enough, the last strike reported was in the office of the Sydney Labour newspaper, "The Worker." It has been told how an effective Journalists' Association has been formed, covering all tho Australian States, and how, bailed up at the Federal Arbitration Court, a'ssociated newspaper proprietors agreed to a much more liberal "log" of wages rather than submit details of management and profits to the mild eve of Mr Justice Higgms. Gradually the lesser papers are being brought into line. But " Tho Worker seems to have been slow in coming. The literary staff protested and three men were discharged. No, they were not " victimised ,y — the manager denies that; they were simply discharged. Then the staff struck. Mr W. G. Spence, president of,the Australian Workers' Union, is one of tho "Worker" trustees. He has been in the van of Labour agitation for years and Years, and if anybody might be expected to svmnathise with strikers it would be Mr Spence. But, sitting in the seat of the employer, Mr Spence was indignant with the "Worker . strikers. There must be an employers virus which affects even stalwart unionists as soon as thev join the employing class. Mr Spence was reported as spying about his literary staff: " They are nothing but a lot of bushrangers. Thev are a most unfair body of men, and" thev made me feel that it 18 no wonder that employers complain sometimes about tho coercive tactics of employees. Thev simply took the matter in their own hands and without warning held n revolver to our heads. The demands of tho staff have been met and tho strike is over; but naturally this sudden appearance, of Hie Worker" Sf.ul among the prophets of the iniquitous Capital has struck other employers as inexpressibly comic.