STRIKE PROSECUTIONS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 142, 18 June 1913, Page 3

STRIKE PROSECUTIONS

CONDEMNATORY COMMENTS'

SYDNEY, June 7. Within the past two months the •Industrial Court of this State has been i called upon to deal, .at the instigation j of th© Minister for Labor, with over I two hundred cases of men, in various i groups, for having gone on strike in , contravention of the Industrial Arbi- j •tration Act. Tihe fines imposed by the > E resident of the Court, Mr James j [eydon, and the condemnatory com-' ■ments made by him in the- first cases, i appeared to have but slight effect, i The monetary penalties were easily; met by union levies to which the fined , men paid only a shilling each, or less, | like the other members of their union, i .-Critics referred scornfully to the i trivial nature of the penalties im- j posed, and th© judge was made to feel! (he clearly indicated this by his re- J marks in subsequent cases) that the j fining business was -regarded as a sort > of legal formality of a not very -ex-; pensive kind in connection with ; strikes. On the day before yesterday ] Mr Justice Jleydon had before him j 52 men in the employ of the Manly j Ferry Company who; went out on j strike in'sympathy, vritli employees of j otlioi1 -ferry companies, who ceased ; work to emphasise a demand for -a 48- ; hours' week. The Manly Company j employees were working undor an in- i diustiial agreement, which provided for a woek'.s r.otioe of cessation of em- { ployrnent. The excuse -advanced in Co»M-k was that the defendants were i ohV.'.'sitl to break the law by' a spirit ; of corm-ade-ship towards other union'- | ists. Tin's exc^e v.c.s described as '' chiMi'h by tlio judge,' «yid with p<x- j of a determination to make iha w-nalties effectual he orctered thl?

payment of fines ranging from £10 down to £2. Seventy-four men were summoned to appear before the Court, but some two dozen of the summonses were withdrawn. This withdrawal left the company with enough hands at work to carry on its sorI vice., The men summoned had declared that it was their intention to I all attend personally at Court, and i that it was the company's look-out if , its service had to be partially susj pendad as a consequence. It was also ! proposed that the men should march ■in procession through the streets to ' the courthouse. However, the police j intimated that.a procession would not ibe allowed, and. the. idea was dropped iat the last moment. A very excited ' stranger, evidently a foreigner, came j upon the seen© while the men were l still together at Circular Quay, and j beyan to (harangue in wild fashion, I calling upon them to do all sorts of j things. When a policeman camp up i and told the man to move on, the j foreigner worked himself into a mad , frensy, attacked the constable, and f was only arrested after a desperate rough-and-tumble encounter on the I roadway, in which both he and the i constable were considerably damaged.