CONFERENCE ON STRIKE TROUBLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18469, 22 May 1928, Page 9

CONFERENCE ON STRIKE TROUBLE.

NO agreement yet IN COOKS’ DISPUTE.

CUnlt«»d Prosit Asm. —By Electric Tel«g:raph.—Copyright. (Received Stay 22, 11.25 a.in.) MELBOURNE. May 22. The conference of the trades union representatives and shipowners discussed the position for an hour and a half, but nothing in the direction of a •ettlement was achieved. The owners stood firmly by the terms already announced. The unions’ committees meet to-day to discuss the outcome of the cpnference and to decide their next move. Meanwhile, hundreds of men opposed to the strike are idle and helpless. The Trades Union Council is unable to obtain replies to its messages to Mr Tudehope, who is recalcitrant, and has declined to allow his union to be represented at the conference with the shipowners

The deputy-chairman of the Commonwealth Steamship Owners’ Association. Mr Elford, stated there was a full and free discussion by the conference, and the shipowners pointed out to the trades union representatives that the offer they had made to the cooks lacked nothing they enjoyed under the former award. Mr Jacob Johnson, secretary of the Australian Seamen’s Union, who has returned to Sydney, declared that the Council of Trades Unions were a lot of bushrangers, who were taking part in the dispute without the cooks’ authority, while some Melbourne officials appeared to be willing tools of the shipowners.—Australian Press Association.