SEAMEN’S BONUS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10822, 11 February 1921, Page 6

SEAMEN’S BONUS

OWNERS’ OFFER ACCEPTED FEDERATION' COUNCIL AGREES UNANIMOUSLY. THEIR VIEWPOINT . EXPLAINED. The shipowners’ offer of a bonus of 5s per month for ordinary seamen and 10s per month for all other ratings has been accepted by the New Zeaand federated seamen. The men originally claimed a bonus of £2 per month. At the first conference, held on January Bth, the shipowners offered os and 10s, the latter amount having been awarded to the cooks and ste/arls by the Arbitration Court. The owners since offered the seamen 5s a and at a second conference last Tuesday, the employers refused to increase this offer, although the men were agr: cable to reducing their demand to £1 “The federation executive council,” said the general secretary (Mr W. T. Young) yesterday, “considered the offer all day Tuesday and yesterday, and finally the decision to accept the bonus was arrived at unanimously. We recognised that our agreement will expire on February 28th next year, and, before then we will submit claims foi a new agreement, when the wages question will again arise. That is an additional point which wo considered. .Tie bonus of 5s per month fipr ordinary seamen and 10s per month for all other ratings will he retrospective to November Ist.” FEDERATION SECRETARY EXPLAINS. In accepting the shipowners’ offer, Mir Young explained that the executive council had been influenced in several directions. In the first place there Would have been no demand for a bonus had not tho Arbitration Court announced its intention of giving a 9s bonus to all workers. The federation then was guided/ by the court, and when the court subsequently reduced the bonus to 3s per week, the federation felt that it was morally hound, to abide to some extent by the decision. It had also to be borne in mind that the cooks and stewards applied the court for a bonus of £2 per month. In December last, Kbwever, the court granted them only 10s per month. That was an insurmountable obstacle, he thought, that- the seamen had to face. The employers did not seem in any way disposed to go beyond the court’s decision, and offered the seamen the same amount as the court gave the cooks and stewards. Then, ‘Mr Young pointed out, the waterside workers .had been before the employers with a demand for a bonus. The employers had mode the waterside workers a certain offer, and no doubt that had largely influenced them in the case of the seamen. He did not regard the watersaders’ case as detrimental to the seamen. At the same time the shipowners could not grant the seamen more than 10s without reviewing the offer made to the watereiders. . There was yet another important point. The seamen realised that they were faced with a slightly falling market, particularly as regards boots and clothing. “These four points,” said Mr Young, “have influenced the seamen. We felt that we must take them into account. We saw at the last conference that it was impossible to get the employers to increase the offer, although we were prepared to reduce our demands. The shipping companies urged that things Were not so good now as they were, and that there had been a slight falling off in, trade. After taking everything into account —particularly our working conditions, which are not equalled anywhere in the world —we decided to accept the offer made to us.”