THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, JANUARY 8,1925. THE AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING TROUBLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19373, 8 January 1925, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, JANUARY 8,1925. THE AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING TROUBLE.

It is now over two months since the shipping trouble in the Commonwealth had its beginnings on the Sydney waterfront when the Waterside Workers’ Federation declared a “no overtime” strike as a means of bringing about the abolition of the Shipping Labour Bureau, with the preference accorded by it to returned soldiers. Since then the ramifications of the dispute seem to have left scarcely an aspect of maritime activity in the Commonwealth untouched. The strikers have been manifestly actuated by the over-ruling purpose of getting absolute control of the waterfront once again into their own hands. Obstruction to the normal shipping activities has run along various channels, and a confused situation has been created. The holding up at Sydney of the Ulimaroa, which should now be in New Zealand waters, is among incidents that have ushered in the new year far from auspiciously. The more recent developments have resulted in serious interference with the InterState shipping services by reason of the irritation tactics of the Seamen’s Union. On tlio eve of Christmas the sailings of six of the largest vessels in the Inter-State running had to be cancelled, with an inevitable serious dislocation of passenger traffic, which is naturally heavy at this time of the year. A statement issued by the Australian Steamship Owners’ Federation reads: ‘The position has become intolerable. The Arbitration Court has proved, as admitted by the president himself, quite unable to enforce its awards against the unions. The shipowners are faced with onomnjus losses, and feel the climax has been reached. Therefore they must make a public announcement that they are now compelled to consider most seriously whether they should not lay up the whole of their fleets until such time as the Government enforces the laws of the country and takes effective measures to ensure peaceable continuity of the transport services.” So far as can be gathered this declaration has had no perceptible effect upon the men, the Seamen’s Union refusing to lift the ban on the Inter-State ships until the claim made for overtime payment for the interval between the return of the men to the ship and the hour of actual Bailing should be unconditionally conceded. The Seamen’s Union has, indeed, not hesitated to fan the flame of dispute by a decree that there shall be but one specific “piclring-np” place for the employment of its members, whereas, according to the award governing the employment of seamen, the “pickingup” place is a matter for determine tion between the parties. The owners of the Inter-State ships are determined not to be forced to pick up their men at “Communist Hall,” and a severe struggle is predicted. The statement made by Mr Bruce that the Federal Government is not contemplating action that will permit of overseas vessels carrying passengers between Inter-State ports is likely to bo disappointing to the travelling public, which has already been put to serious inconvenience. But even were the Government to take such action presumably there would be retaliation on the waterfront. It is not even apparent that the original trouble over the Shipping Labour Bureau is satisfactorily settled. It was reported a week ago that the whole agreement in relation to the bureau was likely to go into the melting-pot, especially as the returned soldiers and sailors were more determined than ever to have nothing to do with • the Waterside Workers’ Federation. The latter have now decided to establish their own pick-ing-up headquarters, and the Premier of New South Wales has undertaken that they shall have their own bureau, and that the support of the Government will be accorded in every way to these men to whom preference was promised. The latest messages record that dose upon forty vessels are laid up, representing an aggregate of over 100,000 tons. The Federal Arbitration Court has made a renewed offer of its services with a view to bringing about a settlement. But it must bo admitted that the prestige of the court in such connection is not what it should be, Mr Justice Powers recently ro-

eeired from the Brisbane branch of the Seamen’s Union a personal letter affirming that the men would not obey the court's directions “until they received instructions from Mr Walsh.” The court was virtually told that it might save itself the trouble of making an award on the claim that certain seamen should be paid overtime rates for sleeping in their bunks, because the authority to settle that matter rested with a private individual. Dealing with some acerbity with the subject of “Arbitration versus Job Control” the Sydney Daily Telegraph bluntly affirms: “If the job control boss is stronger than the Arbitration Court then some other means of keeping the industrial peace must be found.” The same journal continues : “In the meantime wo are threatened with a complete block, and unless free labour is forthcoming, and the law determines to protect it, the Commonwealth will be lucky if, long after the close of the year, it has a single ship of any size trading between its ports. The overseas traffic is exposed to the same danger at a time when an unprecedentedly valuable wool and wheat crop has to bo removed.”