RIVAL UNIONISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19418, 28 August 1926, Page 11

RIVAL UNIONISTS.

AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN. REGISTRATION JUDGMENT. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.' (Reed. 9.5 p.m.) SYDNEY. Aug. 27. The Industrial Commissioner, Mr. A. B. Piddington, to-day delivered reserved judgment on the appeal of the New South Wales branch of the Seamen's Union of Australasia against the refusal of the Industrial Registrar to register it as an industrial union. He severely criticised certain shipowners. All the circumstances surrounding the formation of the New South Wales Coastal Seamen's and Firemen's Union, said Mr. Piddington, pointed to the suspicion that the union was formed not to enable the employees to advance what were just claims against tho employers, but as a rival to the Seamen's Union, with the ultimate object of overthrowing. the New South Wales branch of that uniou, which contained 50 per cent, of the total membership, and had in the past been fiercely antagonistic to the owner. Under these circumstances it was natural that the owners should want to get rid of it. The commissioner allowed the appeal of the New South Wales branch of the union and admitted it to registration, but ordered that the order must lie in his office until the union lodges a deposit of £3OO as security to abide by the result of any order made by the commission under the Industrial Arbitration Act of tho State. Tho deposit will be released after six months.

Mr. Pi'ddington dismissed "the appeal of the New South Wales Coastal Union against the refusal to register it as an industrial union. Referring to the alleged job-control on the Ulimaroa, the commissioner said that apart from the initial wrongdoing on the men's part the responsibility for the later delay was at least as much with the owners as with the men. Commenting on the general conditions of seamen he said the present state of tilings was that modern ships were floating cities with piiJjiial splendour for the passengers, but the forecastles were floating slums. Mr. Piddington, in summing up the prospects of industrial peace in the shipping industry, said there must be a fundamental alteration of tho conditions under which seamen lived. Employers must abandon the utilisation of the processes of the law to postpone, redress or escape from the admission of reasonable claims. Employees mu3t abandon • such methods of harassing trade and penalising the public as were involved in the use of job-control and direct action. There would be a better prospect of securing industrial peace in the New South Wales coastal trade if tho Seamen's Union were admitted to registration than if it were excluded.