STRIKES A FAILURE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10507, 7 February 1920, Page 6

STRIKES A FAILURE

CONDEMNED BY UNION LEADER Mr Bodkin,: secretary to'theißailwiy Workers’ Industry Branch: of the . Australian Workers’ Union, speaking in; Sydney fleceatly, forcibly /condemned, direct action. Ho said:—“l have been deeply interested in tho progress of arbitration, "and -while"! can trad-many faults with-it, it .appears to me, on reviewing direct action methods, that ar.bitratiou-is by far-the-better method. To quote Broken Hill, a section of the people there mostly' depend on direct action in order to gain their ends. Nine years ago Die minors in that centre • wore better off by fully 10 per cent, than -were the navvies in Hm Sydney district. Since then the Broken Hill miners have resorted -to direct action, and by that method they . have lost many months’ work. The railway; workers -during that period; have"lost no time, and have depended solely on arbitration., They hare gradually improved their conditions until fit tho present' time they have pas*d the Broken Hill men by increases-of-fully 20 per cent, in wages. This in itself is sufficient ground tor me to bo satisfied with tho advice I gave my aaeinbers a few years ago in .Urging them to stick to arbitration. Then, take thn seamen in their recent dispute,- Ariel having, been out -or strike for several months they resumed on their ordinal demands—3ss per month increasei/Th* loss in wages to these men ran Auto many thousands of pounds. The -whole of that- period the Australian Workers' Union was interesting itself ih • the Board of Trade, and we got increases of 34a a, : fortnight as l against the 35s a, month obtained by. the seamen. ’*