STATE STEAMSHIPS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 864, 16 November 1916, Page 9

STATE STEAMSHIPS.

NOW DECLARED "BLACK." ACTION BY SEAMEN'S UNION. Press Association. WELLINGTON, November 15. An unexpected development has occurred in connection with the manning of the Government steamers Hinemoa, Tutanekai, and Amokura, which has resulted in the Federated Seamen's Union refusing to allow its members to join those vessels unless they forfeit their membership. Mr W. T. Young, general secretary of the Federated Seamen's Union, stated to-day that at a meeting of the Executive Council of the Federated Seamen's Union, on the Bth inst., a letter was considered from the Minister of Marine, in reply to the request of the Council that the Government steamers should be brought under union jurisdiction so far as the working conditions of the seamen and firemen were concerned, the Minister declined to accede to !lus request, end as a result the following motion was unanimously carried by the Council and will be circulated among all seamen in Australasia:— "That the Minister of Marine, having i clused the request of the Executive Council to reinstate under union control the Government steamers Hinemoa, Tutanekai, and Amokura, thereby refused to recognise the Federated Seamen's Union and its control in regard to these ships. It is now resolved that the Hinemoa, Tutanekai, and Amokura be declared 'black,' and that the deck, stokehold, and engine-room men employed on those ships from November 15, 1916, shall be considered as working in opposition to this Union and its members, and shall be liable to expulsion or non-admission, as the case may be." Following the resolution, Mr Young says a letter is being forwarded to the Minister of Marine, combating his assertion that the Union terminated its agreement with the Government in the strike of 1913, and pointing out that the Tutanekai was out of commission, and had been for some weeks previously. The Union had not been asked to man her. The Amokura was away on her trip to the Southern islands at the time, and no man left her about that period except one, who was alleged to have deserted the vessel at Port Chalmers. Further, that the crew of the Hinemoa had acted strictly in accordance with their agreement and the shipping laws when they gave twentyfour hours' notice to leave the vessel at Wellington, and had honourably worked out their notice, and had legally left the ship, and that the ship was not taken by the men until the Government had proposed to set aside the agreement entered into with the Union by placing the Hinemoa in the Wellington-Lyttelton service.

The letter to the Minister also points out that by a letter doted November 18, 1913, to the Seamen's Union, the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher had caused the agreement to be terminated; also that at a mass meeting of the Union at Wellington on November 3, 1913, a motion was unanimously passed that members in Government steamers should continue in their employ as long as the vessels continued in the work stipulated in Ihe agreement. Also, by circular letter of Ihe Marine Department forwarded to masters of Government ships, and signed by the secretary of the Marine Department, a copy of which Mr Young states he has in his possession, there is an instruction that if men signing on the articles are members of tlie Union, they must terminate (heir membership. "And," Mr Young said, "(hat is just exactly what the Union's latest resolution proposes to endorse in future, and it remains for the Minister to decide whether the ships shall he manned by farmers or by qualified seamen."