LUMPERS AND LABOURERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4930, 1 September 1890, Page 3

LUMPERS AND LABOURERS.

A fow days ago telegrams wero received from Napier stating that Union men at work discharging dredge punts at Is per hour had been told they must not work for less than Is 3d an hour as it was contary to tho established wage rulo ; and tbat tho men knocked off, as tho onginoor would not give Is 3d, though they wero satisfied with tho Is an hour. A Napier paper gives a different version of the story, as follow*, !— " Some of the wharf labourers were discharging the punts at Is per hour. The secretary of the Union wa» Bent for, and on his pointing out to tho membors of tho Union that they woro working under wages and with Don-Union men, they at oqco wished to stop, but tbe eeorotary told them to go on and work until

the Harbour Board's gangor could get men to replace them. The Beoretary put it to the men of his Union m this way, ' You ' (meaning tho Union mon) ' belong to a Union which protects you ; you will not allow a non-Union man"t:> work on the wharf, yet you go and take the work that properly belongs to thoae other men away from thorn.' He appealed to them us men to give the whole thing proper consideration, he was sure thoy would agree with his idea. He considered that shovelling mud was not wbarf labourers' work, and that this sort of work should be loft to men'who are not wharf labourers, aud who never seek for a day's work on tho wharf. The men saw their mistake, worked on until they finished their job, and on Saturday |morning wero roplacnd by men who are not wharf labourers. This is as itjshould be, ond epoaks volumes for the wbarf labourers of Port Ahuriri " '.The oecretary writes to tho editor as follows:— "I viaitod tbo punts this morning and Jfound all union men workiug there, not wharf labourers. The latter are not piok and shovel men, The men that aro now there follow up thut kind of work, their wages being Is per hour. The members of the Wharf Labourers' Union do not wish to lake the bread out of a 00-unionißt's mouth."