A GLOOMY OUTLOOK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20151, 21 May 1928, Page 7

A GLOOMY OUTLOOK

THE COOKS STRIKE Owners’ Chairman Sees No Heps Of Settlement LOSS TO DATE HALE A MILLION t By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright ] [ Australian Press Assn. ] Receivied May 20, 6 p.m. MELBOURNE, May 20. Mr Appleton, chairman of tho Commonwealth Steamship Owners’ Association, states he sees no prospect of a settlement of tho cooks’ dispute. The owners arc now more determined than ever to stand firm. They insist on the abolition of job control and the roster system before making any move to recommission the idle vessels. It is stated that if the Australasian Council of Trades Unions asks the owners for a conference, the latter will question its authority to act, and will point out that conferences are a waste of time unless the union representatives are able to prove they are in a position to control the cooks. It is estimated that by Monday the strike will have cost £500,000. The emergency executives of the Australasian Council of Trades Unions and the Committee of Maritime Unions have decided that the Council of Trades Unions be empowered immediately to seek a conference with the owners and that the cooks be invited to attend the conference and participate in all future negotiations. The effect of the motion will be to put the cooks iu the position either of accepting or rejecting mediation by the Council of Trades Unions, to which the maritime unions claim the dispute has now been officially referred. MORE NEGOTIATIONS COOKS’ REQUEST. OWNERS STAND FIRM [ Australian Press Assn. I SYDNEY, May 19. The Howard Smith collier Eva will be tied up to-day and the crew of 38 rendered idle, due to the cooks’ strike. Mr C. Tudchope, general secretary of the Cooks’ Union, will return to Sydney to-day, and will attend a meeting of his union to report on the latest development in Melbourne. Mr C. Crofts, chairman of the Australasian Council of 7 rades Unions, had an informal interview with Mr Appleton, chairman of the Owners’ Federation, upon the latter’s return to Sydney, seeking to reopen negotiations for a settlement. Mr Appleton replied that the fact that the unions had come to some sort of an agreement among themselves seemed by them to be regarded as a settlement of the strike, but the owners had not been consulted. He reminded Mr Crofts that Huddart Parkers’ had already lost £lOO,OOO, which is irrecoverable whatever settlement is reached. The terms on which the owners are prepared to settle had already been set forth and would be insisted upon The owners demanded the abolition of the , roster system and declined to give a guarantee of employment to members of the Cooks’ Union under the conditions of the suspended award. If Mr Crofts would make a formal request for a conference with * the shipowners he would place his application before them on Monday. Beyond that he would say nothing.