HEAR BOTH SIDES.

NZ Truth, Issue 438, 15 November 1913, Page 5

HEAR BOTH SIDES.

Fight "Forced Upon Us"

Says Sir James Mills

Managing Director Unim S^ewm Ship Co,

§ir Jamos Mills, interviewed by Wellington "Evening Post." said that it was perhaps as w©U that he, 03 representing the Union Company,

should take some notice of the misleading- statements made by officials or the Federation of Labor, He referred to the assertions that tho pre-. s*nt trouble was -due to 'a' lock-out of the Waterside Workers. >y tha Shipping companies; also, thafc>it was pnrt of a careful}y-laid scheme to crush trade unionism. These' statements wero repudiated by the Citizens' Defenco Committee,, but it was as well that he fihould reiterate the incident* but of which the strike, originated. ' » "A SMALL MATTER."

The facts were that a. dispute arosa between the. Sbipwrighta' Union and the employers m conneo lion with demands for increased pay, etc.— a small matter, which should have Deoa capable of adjustment after full discusslob, and, if necessary, a reference to an independent authority to brin^ about an equitable settlement. Tho shipwrights merged their union into the Waterside Workers k Union, and the latter body decided to toko up tho dispute, mid arranged to hold a meeting to consider what courso they should adopt about it. Instead of holding this meeting m thoir" own time, the Watersido Workers elected to call a "stop-work" meeting at eight o'clock m the morning, notwithstanding that the employers protested that this would bo a flagrant breach of the agreement. When the men struggled bnck to work after the meeting, it woa a case of "first come first served," and other members of the union were taken on to tho various jobs, and, bb it happened, some of the men who bad been at work tho night before, were not reinstated on tho jobs they left. The Union Executive demanded that all men who hnd been at .work 'tho night before should bo reinstated on the same jobs. This the companies declined to ilo. and the Executivo forthwith withdrew all labor from the ships m port.