LABOUR IN REVOLT

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 65

LABOUR IN REVOLT

TRANSPORT WORKERS' STRIKE. GOVERNMENTS PROPOSALS REJECTED. LONDON, June 11. The employers have rejected the Government's proposals. The National Executive of the Transport Workers has telegraphed to all centres recommending an immediate general stop, page. At a meeting on Tower Hill 1000 strikers who have served in the Regulars and Territorials, volunteered as a strikers' civilian force. Mr Ben Tillett advised them to arm themselves with the biggest cudgels they could find. The Transport Workers' Federation appeals for funds. It states that 100,000 workers are concerned in the dispute, and that 300,000 children and 100,000 women need maintenance. Several relief committees have already been organised. The employers' representatives conferred with members of the Cabinet, to whom they handed a collective reply. While they recognised that the provision of a substantial cash deposit would afford better safeguards than formerly, the Government's scheme would not achieve the end which- the Government proposed. It was absolutely impracticable to federate the employers efficiently as a whole or in sections. Even if legislation were obtained, the foreign ship-owners who constituted a large element of the trade of the port of London would under their treaty rights be unaffected; therefore the Britishers would be at a disadvantage. The scheme did not provide for the representation of non-unionists at the port. The labour question was so complicated that it required an exhaustive discussion to ensure a permanent settlement, and this would be possible only after work was resumed. The employers are not prepared to make counter proposals, but are unable to agree to the principle underlying the Government's proposal.

STRIKE COMMITTEE'S MANIFESTO. LONDON, June 11. The Strike Committee has issued a manifesto which states that it has exhausted all £he means to prevent a strike, and has vainly endeavoured for eight months to enforce its contract with the employers. The latter mostly failed to carry out their contracts honourably, and invariably federated for the defeat of organised labour. They now refused t<> give the security of a money guarantee. The committee appeals to all other ports to join in the strike, and also for the financial support of other trade unionists. The Barry dockers have unanimously refused to obey the summons for a general strike. The Manchester dockers are enthusiastic for a strike. Mr Miller, a delegate of the National Union of Labour, speaking at Newcastle, said they had not been consulted about the dispute, and they had no quarrel with their employers. Mr Gosling had no authority to include the north-east coast in the scope of a national strike.

NO DESIRE FOR GENERAL UPHEAVAL. LONDON, June 11. ■The dockers' officials state that the response to the strike order is not extensive. The Port of London position is unchanged. Eight thousand one hundred and twenty-six free labourers are working, and 100 vessels are unloading. Some London ships are loading at Grimsby. There is great privation among the strikers' families in London. - Extra police have been stationed in the dock districts. A number of intimi dators were frustrated. Two thousand men have struck at Plymouth, and 2000 at Southampton. Ships are held up at Bristol, Manchester, and Sunderland. Altogether 13,000 provincial dockers have struck, in addition to 12,000 in London. The executive of the Dockers' Union, embracing Liverpool, Scotland, and Ireland, has decided not to strike. There was a free fight at Poplar. The strike-breakers, who are in a majority, resented the pickets' action, and attacked them. Mr Ben Tillett, on Tower Hill, said : " The employers want the Government to turn out the soldiery to shoot you, and the Tories are demanding your children's blood. If our men are going to be murdered, then I am going to shoot Lord Devonport, who is responsible for this strike." June 12. The appeal of Mr Gosling and Mr Tillett to trade unionists states that all their spare funds are depleted. Mr Leggett, secretary of the London Carmen's Union, was arrested for interfering with a non-unionist driver. He was fined 40s, or a month's imprisonment. He chose the latter. There are 1000 strikers at Southampton, 6000 at Swansea, and 8000 at Bristol, •while at Manchester 10,000 workers are affected. The Teeside dockers have decided not to strike The leaders of the Leith dockers, seamen and firemen have condemned a national strike.

There were no London tallow sales owing to the strike. MOTION OF CENSURE. LONDON, June 12. In the House of Commons Mr Austen Chamberlain moved a resolution declaring that Mr M'Kenna'e action in declining to protect strike-breakers is unconstitutional, and that the Governfhent's constant interferences in labour disputes are fomenting unrest. The Mayor, at a meeting of the West Ham Council, refused Cr Thorne, M.P., leave to move a resolution that as the employers had refused a settlement with the council give instructions that the roads communicating with the docks be pulled up. June 13. The motion of censure in connection with Mr M'Kenna's action was defeated by 337 votes to 260. The Nationalists and Labourites voted with the Government, and the O'Brienites abstained from voting. A score of Liberals were absent. Mr Chamberlain acknowledged that dissatisfied workmen were entitled to strike, but he said that satisfied workmen had an equal right to work. The Government was prepared to call out the troops at Belfast when the right of free speech was assailed, and it was equally bound to protect the, right to work. Mr M'Kenna said that more labour had been protected during the present strike without the soldiery than previously. He denied that men wishing to work were prevented from doing so. There were now 8000 men working at the docks, and there was no room for nfore while the lightermen blocked the way. With reference to his refusal to send police to Purfleet, he only required the local authorities to show that the cause was urgent, because the Metropolitan Police were barely able to cope with London's requirements; hence he suggested that they should obtain police from Birmingham, and this was done. He adhered to the assertion that Messrs Houlder Bros, were filling the Lady Jocelyn with free labour, which action was provocative. Their protection would have necessitated the withdrawal of police, thus sacrificing the public interest. June 14. In the House of Commons Mr Asquith announced that the Government proposed to refer two questions to the Industrial Council—one concerning the best method of securing the fulfilment of industrial agreements, and the second as to how far agreements between employers and workmen should be enforced throughout a particular trade or district. MANIFESTO BY STRIKE COMMITTEE. LONDON, June 13. The Strike Committee has issued a manifesto in which it declares that it is prepared to end the dispute on honourable terms, but the employers forced the situation with their unnameable hard-

ships. The Shipping Federation declares that a national strike is remote. It is asserted that at Southampton the strike is of a local character, and that Bristol is the only port where a national strike has taken effect. The Manchester branch of the Seamen and Firemen's Union has decided to strike. SET-BACK FOR LIGHTERMEN. LONDON, June 14. The Port Authority has decided to vary the lightermen's regulations, enabling it to license any qualified applicant. The lightermen are alarmed at this attack on their ancient privileges. The strike is not spreading, and there is a noticeable increase in the work done at the London docks. Several peaceful picketers have been sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. The employers have given notice to claim for losses on the union funds deposited under the 1900 agreement. A non-party consultative council to promote labour co-partnership has been formed. It includes Earl Grey, Mr Alfred Lyttelton, Lord Robert Cecil, and Mr W. H. Lever. STRIKE BREAKING DOWN LONDON, June 14. There is a notable increase in the number of men resuming work at the docks. The London lightermen are now the mainstay of the dispute. But for them the conditions are approaching the normal. One hundred and thirty ships are being discharged. The men's leaders report that 140,000 men are out in all parts. A clergyman in the East End of London reports that many gangs are terrorising and ill-treating the free labourers in their houses. Two thousand so-called strikers' civilian police, carrying large cudgels, paraded on Tower Hill. Mr Stanbury, the organiser, has been summoned for drilling men in Southwark Park without permission. x lt is understood that the Strike Committee has approached the Government with a view to ending the strike. The Manchester dockers have gone back to work. June 15. The strike is fizzling out. The National Labourers' Unions at Cardiff and Penaxth have declined to strike. The secretary of the Seafarers' Union at Southampton has informed the London Strike Committee that Mr Tillett had

no right to issue a manifesto without the consent of the affiliated unions. The Bristol Dockers' Executive has declared the strike off. The. members of the Strike Committee believe there is a possibility of the Industrial Council effecting a settlement, but they still demarni that all the workers be reinstated. The employers at Bristol are incensed over the breach of contracts, and numerous strikers will not be allowed to resume work.at present. The secretary of the Seafarers' Union at Southampton stated that all the London Strike Committee's telegram was bounce, bunkum, and bluff. The seafarers desired progress and plenty, not progress and poverty. June 16. The Strike Committee has repudiated Father Hopkins. It asserts that he is not a real trade unionist. It has also been resolved that there shall be no resumption of work until the August settlement in all grades is guaranteed, and the recognition by a joint board of employers and employed of the Transport Workers' Federation. Mr Tillett, at Tower Hill, stated that Australia. New, 7pal" T id. ar>d America are prepared to help the strikers.

uune 17. The Swansea dockers have decided to return to work, v

Mr Gosling, speaking in Trafalgar square, declared that the men could never go back on the old conditions. The national strike had proved a bad card. It was no use pretending that they were not hard up. Mr Keir Hardie, speaking at Forest of Dean, said the workers in a particular industry, desiring the co-operation of the rest of the workers, must consult all before venturing to precipitate a crisis. He was convinced that legislative action would produce more permanent results than they could hope to win by strikes. The results gained in good times were liable to be lost in bad times.

APPEAL TO AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY, June 17. Mr Ben Tillett has cabled to the Wharf Labourers' Union as follows :—" Transport dispute; block all London-bound vessels." The union will consider the matter at Wednesday night's meeting.