AUSTRALIAN WATERSIDERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19316, 31 October 1924, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN WATERSIDERS

THE FREE-LABOUR DISPUTE WEEK-END STOP-WORK MEETING. Brass Association—By Tairgraph—Copyright SYDNEY, October 30. It is announced in shipping circles that from 7 o’clock on Saturday morning till Monday morning no work will be done' by members of the Waterside Workers Federation on any wharf iu Australia, and that stop-work meetings will be held at every port. This move is believed to be a threat to force the hands of the shipowners by striking when the Melbourne Cup Carnival is at hand. EFFORT TO AVERT STRIKE. NEGOTIATION PROPOSED. ' MELBOURNE, October 30. A conference of representatives of the transport unions has been convened by the Trades Hall Industrial Disputes Committee, with the object of averting, if possible, the threatened strike. No definite conclusions were reached, and the conference adjourned till to-day so that definite proposals might be made for negotiations to be opened with the Sydney shipowners before action is decided on for carrying the proposed strike into effect. REFUSAL TO WORK OVERTIME. SYDNEY, October 30. The decision arrived at by the Wharf Labourers’ Union to reiuse to work overtime until the Shipping Labour Bureau is abolished was endowed by the Brisbane Waterside Workers’ Federation. It is expected that the decision, which comes into operation on November 3, will be given effect to by the waterside workers throughout the Commonwealth. The unions realise that when they refuse to work overtime labour will be found through the Shipping Bureau; but, to counteract this, the seamen will refuse to work ships loaded by non-union labour. COST OF LIVING REDUCTIONS. SYDNEY, October 30. It is announced that the quarterly adjustment in the wages owing to a reduction iu the cost of living has resulted in a reduction of 2s 6d monthly in the wages of all the maritime union members, and a fall of id per hour to 2s for waterside workers.