DISGRUNTLED MEN WITHDRAW SUPPORT FROM MR J. ROBERTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 9

DISGRUNTLED MEN WITHDRAW SUPPORT FROM MR J. ROBERTS.

LYTTELTON WATERSIDERS HOLD STOP-WORK MEET. The Coronation ITall on the Lyttelton waterfront was crowded this morning when between 400 and pOO watersiders attended the monthly stop-work I meeting. The meeting was of special interest on account of Messrs G. Glover, president of the New Zealand Watersiders’ Federation, and Mr J. Roberts, secretary of the federation, being present to address the men. The employers were informed yesterday that three hours instead of the usual two hours would be reqviired as time off for to-dav's meeting, or from 8 till H a.m. Officials of the union had nothin j to say regarding the discussion at the meeting, but from another source it I was learned that since the last hold-up over the Saturday afternoon holidays dispute Mr J. Roberts had lost a great deal of local support. He was at the time accused of letting the Lyttelton watersiders down by the signing of a document which was an agreement that the Lyttelton men would work on Saturday afternoons for the extra lid an hour all round rise in ! wages. It evidently got to Mr Roberts’s ears that the local union disapproved his action, and that they intended to, act in future independently to some degree. A watersider who attended the meeting told a “ vStar ” reporter that Messrs Glover and Roberts had come down to explain their reason for signing the agreement in reference to the working of the .Saturday half-holiday, and also again to request the local union to reconsider the matter and fall in with the other unions.