SHIPPING HOLD UP

Wairarapa Age, 23 May 1928, Page 5

SHIPPING HOLD UP

MARINE COOKS AND OWNERS CONFER. NO SETTLEMENT REACHED. SEAMEN STAND ALOOF. United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, May 22. The conference discussed the position for an hour and. a half, but achieved nothing in the direction of a settlement. The owners stood firmly by their terms already announced. The union’s committees meet to-day to discuss the outcome of the conference and decide on their next move. Meanwhile, hundreds of men, opposed to a strike, are idle and helpless. The Trades Union Council is unable to obtain replies to its messages to Mr. Tudehope, the cooks’ general secretary, who is recalcitrant. He declined to allow his union to be represented at the conference with the shipowners. The deputy-chairman of the Commonwealth Steamship Owners’ Association, Mr. Elfor.d, stated that 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 their former award. Mr. Jacob Johnson, secretary of the Australian Seamen’s Union, who has returned to Sydney, declared that the council of the trades unions were a lot of bushrangers, and were 1 taking part in the dispute without the cooks’ authority, while some Melbourne officials appeared to be the willing tools of the shipowners.—(P.A.) PROTEST BY COOKS. AGAINST TRADES COUNCIL MEDIATION. (Received Tuesday, 8.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 22. Mr. Tudehope, secretary of the Marine Cooks’ Union, states that the union is now going to endeavour to convene a conference with the owners to discuss proposed terms of settlement. Mr. Tudehope strongly defended the action of the cooks yesterday in refusing mediation by the Australian and New Zeala/id Council of Trades Unions, stating that they do not recognise the lat- . ter’s authority to intervene in the matter without the consent of the organisation directly concerned. He added that the union intended to notify the owners that the Australian and New Zealand Council of Trades Unions was acting without the authority of the cooks and that the latter were now going to attempt to arrange a conference_ to discuss the question of the abolition of the roster system together with other terms.—(P.A.) COUNCIL INSISTS. (Received Tuesday, 8.5 p.m.) MELBOURNE, May 22. Despite the fact that the cooks repudiated intervention by the Australian and New Zealand Council of Trades Unions it is expected that the council will endeavour to re-open negotiations with the owners. If the cooks’ leaders continue to refuse to recognise the council’s authority the council will conclude terms of settlement with the owners and take the control of the dispute out df the cooks leaders’ hands — (P.A.)