STRIKE-ENDING EXTRAORDINARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8585, 29 March 1906, Page 2

STRIKE-ENDING EXTRAORDINARY.

PACIFYING OUTRAGED LABOUR. The following extraordinary method of settling a strike appears in the " Chicago Tribune." The proprietor of the warehouse mentioned is now in London, and vouohes for the complete truth of the account:— The freight-handlers at the factory in question went on strike because one of the men had been dismissed for incompetency and disobedience. The manager sent for the leader of the strikers, in order to conduct negotiations towards a settlement. "Look here," he 6aid to the strike leader, "I've been thinking it over, and I'll take this fellow back if he'll do what I tell him, providing what I ask is neither degrading nor unreasonable." " We'll settle on that basis, and glad to do it. The men will go to work in the morning," was the reply. Next morning the men turned up, the cause of the strike among them. *The~,^manager singled him out, and told him to sit in an armchair placed outside the entrance to the works. "You sit there until I give you something else to do," was the order. The man dki so with a grin. It was an eaey way of earning his wages. He sat there till noon, and all the men passing in. and out chaffed him about his job. After lunch he went in to report to the 3nanager. "Go back and 6it down in your chair," said the manager, " and stay there till further orders." For four days the , man sat in the chair at the entrance to .the works, doing nothing. But after the first day he felt lies' had never worked so hard in his life. His • < legs «ached with the agony of sitting still ; his hands twitched nervously for something to do; his mates called him a " chair warmer " ; and in the end he saw fhe manager. " I want to throw up my job," he explained. . " All right," said the manager, "I'll accept your resignation if you insist, but understand that it's purely voluntary on your part." So the man went. The ma-nager added to one of our representatives that the man laid in a stock or newspapers to pass the time, but these were taken away from him as not being part of the working contract.