SHIPPING DEADLOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19962, 2 June 1928, Page 11

SHIPPING DEADLOCK.

COOKS' STRIKE CONTINUES. OWNERS' TERMS REFUSED. SYDNEY. June 1. The marine cooks, at their meeting last night, rejected the shipowners' terms and agreed to carry on the strike. The federal secretary of the union, Mr. J. Tudehope, issued a, statement to this effect after the meeting. At the same time he reviewed the negotiations, and denied a report to the effect that he had spurned the assistance of the waterside workers toward a settlement of the dispute. Mr. Tudehope said it wai unanimously agreed by the cooks that the terms of the shipowners, particularly in regard to the right to a free selection of labour and the abolition of the roster system, amounted to nothing short of an abject surrender. This the cooks would not tolerate. Continuing, Mr. Tudehope said his union was convinced that the shipowners were not sincere. The roster system had been in operation for a number of years. The cooks were most conciliatory in their offer to the owners as to the right to select their own labour, but the union absolutely refused to be stampeded by the owners. The latter, he said, now insisted upon the following conditions : —- That the union must give an undertaking that all the companies will be allowed a free selection of labour for the galley, and be able to choose whom they like. That the owners' representatives must be free to engage men, either thiough the union at call hours, „or outside those hours at the shipping office, the ship's side or elsewhere. The Trades and Labour Couucil has adopted a resolution recommending the Cooks' Union to call a mass meeting to be addressed by representatives of all the maritime unions and of the council, in order to settle the strike on a basis satisfactory to the members of the Cooks' Union. A message from Melbourne says the Kuddart-Parkcr Company has completed arrangements for the chartering of the steamers Lady Isobel and William McArthur for " cargo carrying between Melbourne and Sydney. A SERIOUS POSITION. CRISIS NOW EXPECTED. , (Received June 1, 11.33 p.m.) SYDNEY. June I. As the marine cooks have broken off negotiations with the shipowners «'Us now that the other maritime unions, thev at first' condemned the cooks, will stand by them in the fight to secure the terms of the cooks' demands.