IDLE SHIPS

Southland Times, Issue 20500, 31 May 1928, Page 7

IDLE SHIPS

SEAMEN DECLINE TO JOIN STRIKERS. Sydney, May 30. In addition to the Canberra, the shipowners have now decided to pay off the crew of the Katoomba, which has just arrived from Fremantle. She has a crew of 182, making 20 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 87,000, idle through the marine cooks’ strike. The Waterside Workers’ Union had high hopes for a settlement on the basis of a compromise proposed by Mr Tudehope. Failure of the negotiations throws the onus back on Mr Tudehope, who has been asked to attend a meeting of the Traders Union Council and maritime workers at the Trades Hall, Melbourne, to-morrow. Newcastle, Victorian and South Australian seamen held mass meetings and agreed by resolution to hold aloof from the strike. Each condemned the action of Mr Jacob Johnson, the general president, for adopting the role of dictator on the cooks’ strike. The New South Wales branch held a stormy meeting and decided upon a non-committal attitude. The shipowners are convinced that Johnson tried to involve the seamen, probably at the instigation of the cooks, and the attempt ignominiously failed.—Australian Press Association. CONTROL OF DISPUTE. TRADE UNIONS’ DECISION. (Rec. 9.50 p.m.) Melbourne, May 30. A conference of the Australasian Council of Trades Unions and Maritime Unions associated with it decided to ask the rank and file of the Cooks’ Union to place the dispute in their hands. It was also decided to ask the Sydney Trades Hall Council to summon a meeting of the Cooks’ Union to be addressed by members of the Australasian Council of Trades Unions and Maritime Unions. The conference further decided to ask the Waterside Workers’ Federation to reappoint its delegates to the Australasian Council of Trades Unions in order that a combined front might be presented in the maritime dispute. Mr Tudehope is to be invited to co-operate, but it is realized that the decision is practically an attempt to get the members of the Cooks’ Union to recognize the authority of the Australasian Council of Trades Unions to handle the dispute and that if Mr Tudehope stands in the way the dispute may be taken out of his hands.—Australian Press Association.