SEAMEN’S BOMBSHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1929, Page 14

SEAMEN’S BOMBSHELL

SALARIES OF OFFICIALS. SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTIONS. Sydney, Juno 20. A bombshell has fallen among tlio officials of the Australian Seamen s Union. At a lively meeting in Sydney it was decided to reduce the salaries of all the officials by at least £2, and in

some cases by more than £3 a week. The union has done this by striking a general rate of £7 all round,. not with- i standing that some of the positions are far more important than the others, i Thus the union has put into practice one i of the most important of all union prin- i ciples, that of equal pay for all, but it has not had the same regard for the most vital of all principles, namely, that there shall be no reduction in wages. . Seamen have been outstanding in their determination to fight for higher wages ( and fewer hours, and until their organ- •

isation collapsed as the result of the | undermining of internal strife, they were militant in the extreme, and even now they pass harmless resolutions now and again protesting against the wages attack that is being made on the minersand the timbermen. As the result of the action of the sea men several of the prominent olucials. including the secretary of the New South Wales branch, Mr. Fleming, have resigned, and it is said . that all the officials throughout Australia are prepared to do the same. Mind, they do not call it a strike. Unionists never strike. They are always locked out, and it is presumed that Mr. Fleming and his fellow officers will say that they have been locked out. But will the union say that their officials are on strike? The whole point is very interesting and novel, to say the least of it. Anyhow, it looks as if this will be the beginning of the end of the union as at present constituted. It seems a# though the union will be placed in a hopeless position. Last week Mr. Jacob Johnson was thrown overboard, meeting the same fate as Mr. Walsh. Mr. Fleming was perhaps the only prominent official left in the union. After Mr. Johnson had been removed owing to “neglect of duty,” Mr. Fleming was asked to become general secretary, but he refused. The salary for the general secretary was £lO 10s a week, but now it has been reduced to £7. The salaries of the branch secretaries have been reduced from £9 2s 6d, and that of assistant secretaries from £8 2s 6d. A section of the seamen assert that the new move was initiated by the extremists.