MEN HAVE KITS IN READINESS

Southland Times, Issue 23378, 9 December 1937, Page 6

MEN HAVE KITS IN READINESS

MANY SHOW LITTLE INTEREST AGREEMENT DESCRIBED AS SATISFACTORY (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 8. The conference between the parties began about 8.45 a.m. and lasted over two hours, with one adjournment to give the representatives of the watersiders, including Mr J. Roberts, secretary of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Federation, who had come up from Wellington especially to attend the conference, an opportunity of addressing the men. Mr Roberts played a prominent part in the negotiations and once he and his colleagues had met the members of the union it did not take the conference long to reach an agreement.

Captain R. S. Lewis, chairman of the port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores’ Association, Mr C. B. V. Wheeler, manager of the Union Steam Ship Company in Auckland, and Mr W. H. G. Bennett, representing the Wellington shipping interests, acted for the employers and, in addition to Mr Roberts, Mr Solomon, president, Mr R. Jones, vice-president, and Mr W. J. Cuthbert appeared for the union.

In the meantime over 1000 members of the union and hundreds of nonunionists had gathered on the central wharf, in the union’s hall and elsewhere. They arrived with their kits in readiness for work and many of them showed little interest in the events of the dispute, preferring to talk about everyday matters which had no relation to their work. Others discussed the matter eagerly, but the majority of them appeared to have every faith in the ability of their representatives to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement for resuming work. Some were frank in their declaration that the support for the others’ contentions arose merely because they were all unionists and not through any particular desire to stop work. MEN ACCEPT DISKS

When it was decided to man the Waiana the watersiders immediately clustered about the bureau and accepted disks for the ship without any further reluctance. As soon as the Waiana was manned all the other ships needing labour were provided with their requirements immediately and work was resumed generally at one o’clock.

By the terms of the settlement those men who refused to work the Waiana on Thursday night were not included in the general settlement. Their position was discussed in the afternoon at a meeting of the Bureau Control Board and arrangement? were made after a long discussion for them to return to work. While the meeting was being held these men waited outside the bureau and anxiously questioned their representatives whenever they appeared outside, indicating clearly that they were ready to return to work. Beyond remarking that a settlement had been reached quite amicably Mr Roberts declined to make any statement about the dispute. “The agreement is satisfactory to both sides,” said Mr Solomon. “We still think that we have been acting in a proper manner in the circumstances, although it has been obvious that there have been faults on each side. The employers should not have hung out the engagement disks at three minutes to 10, when, by the rules of the bureau, all employment must be made between the hours of eight and 10. In this case labour was called for three big ships when it was perfectly clear that men could not be engaged in the three minutes in hand. The fault on our side was in accepting the engagement disks under those conditions. The result of the negotiations this morning cannot be called a victory for the employers, because the settlement was equally satisfactory to us.”