THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24 1913. THE END OF THE STRIKE CONTROVERSY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15955, 24 December 1913, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24 1913. THE END OF THE STRIKE CONTROVERSY.

We hardly suppose that the public will be very deeply interested in the controversy which seems now to have arisen between the United Federation of Labour ami the Seamen's Union's delegates over the termination of the strike on the waterfront. The Federation claims that it was not fairly treated by the seamen's delegates when they deckled that their sectional strike should be brought to an end. The aim of the Federation all through, we are told, was to deal with the strike as a whole, and we aro seriously asked to believe that it was unaware- of the intentions of the seamen's delegates to declare the strike, in so fat as it affected the men they represented, to be at an end if they were able to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement with the • shipowners. The assumption by the Federation of the pose of an injured party is somewhat amusing. And its declaration that it lias reason to .believe that the delegates from tho branches of the Seamen's Union did not represent the feeling of the seamen'of New Zealand is simply astounding in face of the fact that by overwhelming majorities the seamen themselves at meetings both in Wellington and Dunedin expressed their acceptance of the conditions, as arranged in conference, upon which they might' resume work. Apparently the Federation seeks to create the impression that its hands were forced by the action of the seamen, and that in other circumstances the strike of the waterside workers would not have been "called off." If so, tho executive of the Federation simply invites the public to believe that they are even more foolish and more regardless of the welfare of the men whom they misled throughout the whole sorry business than they, have been judged to bo. It was so patent.that the strike of the waterside workers had com•plctoly failed that any prolongation of it by tho Federation, of Labour would merely involve its unfortunate:dupes in a great deal of needless hardship and suffering. As it was, in fact, the strike was persisted in long after it should have been brought to a close. The proof of this is furnished both in tho impoverished state of tho striko exchequer and in the difficulty which a number of the members of tho old Waterside Workers' Unions in the northern ports are now experiencing in obtaining employment. A fair proportion of those men will apparently, indeed, have to

seek for employment at other occupations. From the "beginning of the trouble they were -warned that this might be the case, and greater sympathy might bo felt with them in the discovery they are making that their places have been filled by other men if they had not 60 confidentlyimagined that all they would have to do ■whenever the trouble was over would be to walk "down to the wharves and start work again. The suggestion that they have any grievance in the fact that work is not now awaiting them is plainly invalid. The newly elected member for Lyttelton, who has been making offensive references to the new union in the port which is the chief centre of his constituency, may have some reason on his side in complaining that there is an undue disposition on the part of the arbitration union there to make of itself a close corporation. Any tendency towards such a development is entirely to be deprecated not only because it is in conflict with the spirit of tho Arbitration Act and with the letter of tho awards of the Arbitration Court, but also because it must have the effect of ei citing a bitterness of feeling which it should be the endeavour of all parties now tc prevent. It is clear, however, that the members of the arbitration unions who were at work before the strike ended have rights which must be respected, and so long as they are efficient workers and desire to remain at the, employment which they have taken up, these men have greater claims for consideration in the allotment of places upon the wharves than can be urged on behalf of those who are now anxious to return to work because the strike in which they were engaged has ignominiously collapsed.