WAGES OF SEAMEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21274, 30 August 1932, Page 8

WAGES OF SEAMEN

20 PER CENT CUT. SOUGHT agreement ends TO-MORRO^ : • ■: NEGOTIATIONS IN PROGRESS * [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Monday The New Zealand Shipowners' Federation is asking for a reduction of 20 per cent in seamen's wages. Negotiations ara proceeding in Wellington for a new agreement, as the present one expires on .Wednesday., Members of the Seamen's Union employed on vessels have not had a reduction in wages so far, although the 10 per cent cut imposed by the Arbitration Court has been applied to the pay of masters, officers, engineers and cooks and stewards. The Federated Seamen's Union is not a party to an award made by the Arbitration Court, wages and conditions having been fb:ed by an agreement with the shipowners, which came into force on April 1, 1930, and will expire to-morrow. _ « The agreement was arrived at as a result of a round-table conference between ■' representatives of the shipowners and the seamen, and the guarantee that it would bo carried out bears the signatures of tho chairman of the New Zealand Shipowners' Federation, the genera!, manager of the. Union Company, and the general president and the general secretary of the Seamen's Union. By virtue of the agreement the men were not affected by the 10 per cent wages cut and they were not subject to any other reductions that might be imposed on other workers before the expiry of the agreement.