LABOUR TURMOIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15124, 15 October 1912, Page 8

LABOUR TURMOIL

A HALF-HEARTED STRIKE. AUCKLAND LABOURERS "OUT." 400 RESPOND TO CALL. SJX HUNDRED AT WORK MANY MEN OFFERING. Tub decision of the • Auckland General Labourers' Union to como out on strike because some- 60 of its members who took a '"holiday" on Thursday last were refused work on Friday morning resulted in a half-hearted stoppage of work by a portion of tho labourers in the city yesterday. If the whole of the labourers had ceased work there would have been nearly 1000 men on strike, but so poorly was the call responded to that only some 400 men downed tools.'* The strike was the- outcome of a meeting of the General Labourers' Union, held on Sunday morning, when the position which the '-victims" found themselves in on Friday morning was fully discussed, and a strike was decided upon. Pickets were appointed at the meeting, and the strike began at 7.30 a.m. yesterday, with a total of 500 men absent from work. During the early morning the pickets were very busy, and as far as can be ascertained they were successful in persuading from 40 to 50 more men to strike.

No Effect on City Works. The City Council employees, nearly 600 of whom are members of the union, proved to be loyal to the city, for only 29 of thennumber left work. There is, therefore, no tlauger of a stoppage of city works; in' fact, it "may be noted that this is the second call to. strike which the Council men have refused to entertain. Most of them were very emphatic in their refusal to strike yesterday. "We don't want anything to do with strikes," said one. "'Let those fellows who do 'not do one day's work in six do the striking. It doesn't pay us." Men Leave the Drainage Works. The Auckland Drainage Board was the public body most seriously .affected, as 47 of its staff failed to appear at work yesterday morning. They are all casual labourers employed on tho various contracts. Pickets were successful in persuading a dozen men io leave the smaller contracts in Newmarket and Epsom, but the strikers found that the pickets had misrepresented the state of affairs to them, and they returned to work immediately, and we're working again by 11 a.m.

It is not anticipated by the Drainage Board that there will be any difficulty in securing men to fill the vacancies, and the big contracts will not be affected. There seems to bo a good deal of, labour offering, and so anxious aro some of tho unemployed to.find work that before three o'clock yesterday applications had been received by some of the foremen from good pick and shovel men. Their services were immediately engaged 'at tho standard wages. Suburban Local Bodies. Most interest in the suburbs centred around Mount Albert. The Borough Council warned its men early in tho morning that- if any of them left work they would not be re-employed ,under any consideration. Ten men absented themselves from work, and strike pickets appeared on the scene, bent npon getting the remaining 40 out if they could. As soon as the Council authorities saw this attempt, they decided that there was need for police protection' for the loyal men, and in the space Of a quarter of an hour, four constables were strolling round the works. This was. the end of the " persuasion" business, for the pickets deserted this district to attend to more easy prey.

Three men out of a total of 58, employed on the Mount Eden, street works, responded to the strike call, and the remaining 55 proved forcible, and firm loyalists. Several of the men .who were dismissed from the Council's employ for taking part in last Thursdays demonstration vainly endeavoured to get the men to leave work, but they were treated with fine scorn. The Grey Lynn men also refused, for they are- all members of the new Local Bodies' Union, and they intend to remain loyal to arbitration. There are in all 45 men employed by the Grey Lynn Borough Council. Local Bodies Firm. Mr. M. J. Coyle, Mayor of Mount Albert, who is president of tho Auckland Local Bodies* Association says that the association intends to be very firm in the whole matter. " No men who knock off," he said, " will be taken bock." This statement briefly sums up the stand which the association intends, to enforce to the very letter, for it finds itself in the position of being able to obtain plenty of labour, and even if .a little inconvenience is caused by a short period of smaller staffs for the* bodies concerned, the association would sooner have this than be dictated to by the men.

Mr. Coyle further slated that yesterday afternoon it was, found necessary to enforce further restrictions. Some of the men had -asked if they might leave work to attend the meeting of labourers held in ' the afternoon. They had been told that if they did so they would not be taken back. "Any man who left, work to-day," -said Mr. Coyle, " has no chance of obtaining work from any other local body." Sixty Harbour Board Men Out. There arc nearly 400 men now employed by the Harbour Board who come under the heading of general labourers. Sixty of these, employed on the Freeman's Bay reclamation, failed to appear at work yesterday morning. The strike pickets were very active on the works, arid it was not before they had persuaded quite a number of men to put on their coats that they were seen and warned off the Board's properly. Mr. J. H. Gunson, chairman of the Harbour Board said that the Board would probably confer with the other local bodies before deciding upon a course of. action against the men who had struck. The men, of course, were not going to bo allowed to play fast and loose with the Board. The Momingside Quarries. Work at the Momingside stone quarries was almost disorganised yesterday through 40 men out of a total of 56 obeying the call to strike. The position at the quarries is somewhat different . from that on

other city works, for those men who took part in last week's demonsti-ation were re-employed, and it is anticipated that yesterday's strikers will also bo taken back again if they apply for work. One Hundred Remuera Men Out. The suburban local body most seriously affected is the Remuera Board, 100 of whose employees stopped work, only 25 remaining. The men who have loft the Remuera works include some of the leaders of the strike movement. Discontent among the Board's employees has been' brewing for a long time. Eighty of the men did not start, and the other 20 men were persuaded to come out by the pickets. Extent of the Strike. The strike, as stated before, is a very half-hearted one,, for only 400 men are out, out of a total of nearly 1000. The number of strikers is made up approxmately as follows :— Remuera Road Board ... 100 Other suburban bodies ... 45 Morningside Quarries ... 40 Auckland City Council ... 29 Builders' and other labourers 90 Drainage Board ... ... 47 Harbour Board 60 411 Th<> Remuera Road Board will not bo affected to any extent by the strike. Most of the big works, such as the reservoir and several important road schemes, have recently been, completed, and over 100 men were to have been paid off within the next day or two. There .?-ro quite enough men available to carry on the work at present in hand. Filling the Vacancies. '" Any amount of labour is offering," said Mr. Coyle, president of the Local Bodies' Association. He continued that he did not think there would be any difficulty whatever in filling the strikers' places. Some 25 men, it is stated, applied for work at the Mount Albert Borough Council's office on Friday and Saturday, and many more applications aro expected. Owing to tho bad weather, outside work lias not been plentiful of late, and there are said to be many general labourers seeking employment. A Herald representative made some inquiries from the foremen on building and other contracts in tho city as to whether plenty of labour was offering. The reply in every case was that many applications were being received every day, and there seemed to be a iarge number of unemployed labourers in the city just now. There were still a fairly large number of Waihi men about the town, who, as a rule, made good labourers, and the services of these men would, no doubt, be engaged to /ill the places of the strikers.

THE PICKETS AT WORK. SOME FORCIBLE REFUSALS. LOYAL .WORKERS ANNOYED. The pickets appointed by the General Labourers' Union to induce the men to leave work yesterday met in many cases with such forcible refusals that they found that it was best in their own personal interests to get away from the scene of their attempts at persuasion. At Remuera, a picket who " got at" a Maori labourer received the terse but expressive reply, "Whaffor?" to his request that the native should leave work. There was no response to his further entreaties, so he decamped. Another picket found an opponent in a former 'Waihi miner. The latter threw down his shovel, looked the picket squarely in tho eyes, and said, " Look here, mate, I came from Waihi. and I had enough of your sort there. Get out, I'm sick of strikes." Again the picket found.it wise to decamp. There wero many incidents in which there threatened to be serious altercations between the pickets and the loyal men. At Mount Eden, two labourers who were accosted by a picket became so annoyed at his persistence that they threatened to " put him off tho earth if he didn't go away and mind his business." It was at lunch-time that tho pickets found most opportunity for their' work. Immediately the workers settled down to lunch by the roadside in Fort-street, whore the paving operations are proceeding, they were attacked by a band of pickets. A long argument ensued, in which the loyalists remained calm, and adopted a halfscornful, half-amused altitude.

The picketing did not cease all day, and last evening further arrangements were made for organising to-day.

NO DICTATION. MAYOR OF MOUNT ALBERT'S ATTITUDE. SHOULD ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE. The Mayor of Mount Albert (Mr. M. J. Covle) referred to the present trouble at a meeting of the Mount Albert Borough Council last evening. Mr. Coyle told the members of the Council how lie had visited the works during the day and how pickets had visited the men on the Council's works. " These men shall not dictate to this Council," went on Mr. Coyle. alluding to the Federation of Labour.',' I think the time is corning when we should refuse to bo treated in this- way. It is said that the Federation of Labour is given' no work in this borough. There are several good men belonging to the federation who have been pulled aside. They are good men. and we will consider their case. But the time has arrived when the challenge of the federation should be accepted, and private owners of capital should follow our suit, and fight to the bitter end. We all have noticed it; the foreman is harried and worried. They want to dictate to us, and would perhaps like to run our Council. We ought to take a strong stand. I rang up larger bodies to-day and received strong support from Remuera and .Newmarket, especially the latter, and other bodies followed. This Council does not object to sane unionism. We ask no questions and give fair play. We arc not given fair play. Let these men become nrbitrationists; they cannot take half a day's holiday because their friends are breaking the'law. We all know how much talk of war is going on. Let it come to an end, and let us have it out. Let them play their right bower and we'll play it out." The action of the Mayor was unanimously approved by the meeting. TOT WATERSIDE WORKERS. MEETING EARLY THIS MORNING. The members of the General Labourers' Union were in informal conference yesterday with the Waterside Workers' Union regarding the strike. The executive of the latter body has called a meeting for seven a.m. to-dav, at which it is understood the wharf labourers will decide whether to come out in sympathy with the labourers or not. THE TRAMWAYMEN. TO BE APPROACHED TO-DAY. The Auckland Tramways Union is to be approached to-day by the General Labourers' Union with a request that the tramwaymen shall come out in sympathy with the labourers. It is expected that the tram men will remain loyal to the employers.