SEAMEN AND FIREMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11304, 1 September 1922, Page 2

SEAMEN AND FIREMEN

CONDITIONS AND PAY SECOND STAGE OF LENGTHY" PROCEEDINGS. UNION’S CASE OPENED. The second stage of the Seamen’s and Firemen’s dispute, which has already occupied a fortnight before the Arbrtraition Court, commenced yesterday, when jibe case of the union, the respondents in the dispute, was opened. Mir W. T. Young, secretary of the Seamen's Federation, addressed the court at great length in putting hie case, and in criticising statements made during the hearing of the shipowners’ argument. Hie Honour Mr Justice Frazer presided, with Messrs M. J. Reardon and W. Soott as employees’ and employers’ representatives respectively. , At the outset Mr Young corrected, what he maintained were confused ana. misleading statements made by -various witnesses and representatives on the other side. Mr Hammond 1 , repreeenting the Northern Steamship Company, he said, had made reference to the agreement of 1917, and had asserted that it had been the custom on coastal steamers prior to that year for seamen and firemen at sea to work twelve hours daily bv watch and watch without overtime. "The fact is,” said Mr j Young, "that prior to June Ist, 1917, on steamers where only two firemen,, greasers, or trimmers were carried, the men / worked at sea in the stokehold and. engine-room watches of six hours on and six hours off. In all steamers where sufficient firemen, pr greasers, or trimmers wore carried to work these watches, watches of four hours on and eight hours off were work-, ed in every instance. ’Wherever the six-hour class of watch was worked, it was on small steamers having short runs of from -five to twelve hours between ports, except in four or five isolated instances of where two trimmers only were carried in, addition to three firemen and three greasers—the latter of whom worked watches of four hours on and eight hours off. Between August Ist, 1899, and June Ist, 1917, mem working watches of six hours in the stokehold or engineroom were paid £1 monthly above the wage paid to men working watches of four hours. With the abolition of -watches of six-hours, wages of ail firamen, greasers, or trimmers were equalised. As some 95 per cent, of ships working six-hour watches arrived or departed each day, the men seldom worked 12 hours on any one day; and under that system the ship was compelled to pay large sums in overtime for keeping steam in port ait all hours of the twenty-four.” Mr Young • went on to refer to the hours of work of deckhands, and maintained that they seldom worked more than, eight hours, even on those small vessels that worked two watches only. lln order, however, he contended, to eartract more ordinary hours of labour in {port at the working of cargo by seameh, thereby saving payment to waterside workers, .a fair percentage of veeisels worked three’watches of deckhands of four hours on and" eight hours' oft at sea: - After dealiiisr with [the wartime conditions and legislation,-Mr Young alluded to the 1930 agreement. .It had, he said, been - asserted by the shipowners’ representatives that the agreement was 'forced on the shipowners. In reply, Mr Young said that agreement was "executed with champagne end wine biscuits in the building of the Union Company.” He would deal later with "the alleged 1 falling-off in the shipping trade. Mr Young then, dealt in detail with statements'made by Mir Hammond (representing . the Northern Steam Ship Company).’' These statements related more particularly to conditions prevail-. ing in the Auckland trade; river limits, auxiliary 'ships—oil-power vessels; also conditions and rates of pay. - REPLY to union company. "The address of Mr W. G. Smith” (representing, the Union Steam Ship Company), remarked Mr Young, "was lengthy, and while it was largely a re. cord of historical matter and confusion of facts, it was of little interest, even if Unconvincing. In dealing with overt time payments, Mr Smith gave the highest, and lowest; and ho gave not the highest and lowest of a ship, but of a trade, and for the purpose of- this argument, and evidently to confuse and mislead, only the two grades lowest—are given,’ In 90 oases in 100 in, the Union Company's service the. highest overtime earned by any number of the union is by the donkeymaa, and the lowest by Jhe ordinary seaman. Thd court will see'that no tniention is made of the grades between those two, and . that those two dire extended to trades and .not limited to ships If those figures could be investigated it would he found. I think, that the average monthly overtime per man employed- per trade la about £5 in the .first ihraq.trades; about £4, in the. fourth and fifth trades; about<66 in the Lvttolton-Wallin gton service; about £4 Pacific Islands servioe; about •£3 Now Zealand-American mail service; and about ’ £4 Wellington-Picton service.” : . TEAKFUL EYES. "With tearful eyes,’’ he proceeded, "it was mentioned that in the trades referred to, the overtime earnings of mien have decreased owing to slackness in trade, hut have again increased owing to 3d being tacked on to 2s 6d. This sympathy," added Mr Young, "one can accept in the spirit ini which it was given. I may point out that the additional 3d only operated from April Ist, and_ no retains could have been available until after 'May let. It is admitted, however, that overtime at 2s 6d. was increased by 3d from April Ist, and.it is equally admitted thait if a man earned <612 overtime in a month, he would have to work ninety overtime hours at 2b 6d to. accomplish the fact. "The union does not, however, intend taking much notice of any sum earned in overtime being token as anything in the shape of a basis for fixing a living standard wage, for the reason that overtime is not stable, and is something thait may be earned or not at the will of the employer”' It had be in -pointed out, said Mr ■Young, that the bulk of the Union Company trade was now oversea—the. proportion being 75 per cent. He contended that the oversea traders of the Company. affected by this dispute numbered six out. of a fleet of eighty ships. These ships are: —Hauraki, Waihora, Waikawa. Waiotapu, Waitemata, and Weitomo of those six the 'Waihora, Waitemata, and Waitomo were hugely engaged in the coal trade between Newcastle and New Zealand, and* during the past year mads quite a number of voyages in the intercolonial trade. That was the'extent of the Union Company’s competition, which Mr Smith wished-His Honour to put down at 75 per cent. . - THE COST OF LIVING.

Reference had been made, said Mr Young, by the Union Company’s representative, to the cost of Jiving, and it was pointed out by him that the provisioning of crews costs the employer from £1 8s to iSt JSa par week per man. But in compensation oases' this Union Company had strongly argued that 'the oost of keep was £2 monthly. "For their purposes ■ in this dispute," .added ‘, Mr Young, "and in older to farther magnify the alleged earnings of men, the employer has the shamelessness to tell this court that it coete from £& is to Jt 7 15s monthly to provision, a man on board ship. If your Honour visited the ships of the Union Company, emt thus obtained at practical demonstration of sAme of the so-called provisioning of men, you would conolude that the ooet did not reach 28 pence weekly, let alone that number of shillings." "It is also contended that the cost or living having, allegedly, fallen, 33 per cent., that the heeio wage should he substantially reduced- I fear that if 33

per cent, is taken ofAthe wage to level the alleged falling off in the cost of livings and a, farmer reduction is made on qooqunt of what it costs the employer to allegedly keep a man, and another reduction ’}* made on aooount of tl>e enormous amount earned in overtime, thpre will'be no basic wage left to take home on jpy day." TRAVELLING AOCXXMMOBATiaN. "Mr Smith states thft he ia not aura whetaeg the edunterdlgim of the union is for- eteerage or-return accommodation for a. rpon when travelling on a> free poosage. All Iwant to’tell Mr Smith is that it phalli be , reasonable aeoommodatftm. and thntew'hen men of the seamen s organisation are travelling on flee passage pr otherwise they axe entitled to accent ’ The word ’cabin' in ’ the“oounteKpropofals does not necessarily mean steerage-or saloon,' bat that the man- shall be provided with a bunk in a cnirin/ and piot be piaoed in the hold of -a snip, or in a smoke-room, or in some place-whelp there is not the slightest' bitr-eot.'nii'rsey- During the peripdl Of t£e existing agreement attempts have been made to place our members* In- ths~*tn eon-docks of -the No. 4 hatch - of the ; Moeraki, where there were some 25 or 30 make-ehift and whitewodhed bunkgaad the odour deplorable. Thia was 'ht 'Auckland, it being so bad pr filthy.’that the union induoed the Government ’ Superintendent of Marine of the'pdrt to .visit the ship end inspect the, place, end he pronounced it quite unfit'for the occupation-of men. Some threq months ego at * Wellington, two men/ travelling to Sydney by the Ulimaroa, -wore - Ifioiag-aooommoaated in s small smokeropm, about Bft x Bft. immedlEteayl etYhe heed Of-the companionway leading to ’the stetimge, and through which all -‘male,. _. and female .passengers • had. to ’ pass to and fro '• .The Z. Bhnk„ took the. eh&ne of a small pet tee, one being right in front of thdV. companion way, and in either settee there waq not even a curtain to srivs-th|g"inam<a little privacy; they would have been -compelled to undress and:drateih that-room in the glare of any paseeulServ who liked to pass to or from the steerage. v Besides that the amokeroom, wjguoh- had three small card tablte in It, would ~be need* at all hours of the day and night by male passengers and,’ perhaps, females, and the two men were: being obked' to put up with all this inconvenience ahd jmblie' exposure. Needless to say, the union objected, and eventually threatened to keep the men-: in Wellington ’ pntil proper accommodation was "found. This resulted in the men being-given bunks in a cabin in the steeragC- - In pome oases ships are full With paying passengers, and. in' order that men shall,J>e’landed at ths port of shipment at the earliest to relieve the employer of-hi? liability- for wages and keep under .the'sgrpqment at the earliest possible moment, attempts have been made, Tio doubt some snOoesstul, to accommodate them in any corner on board ship for the- Voyages- whioh reminds me of a statement made on oath in this court -by a,-Union Obmpanr official in the seamen's ■ dispute in IMB to the ef-

fect that if a wsarnan got two hours sleep in any earner on board ship tit was: aa good to him as ten hours would be upon Mr Young proceeded to ad-trass the court upon the Australian aiaxd, anti the' court adjourned tUI 10 am. today.