LABOUR TROUBLES.

Waikato Times, Issue 12784, 3 February 1914, Page 5

LABOUR TROUBLES.

K -» DUBLIN STRIKERS RESUME. LONDON BUILDING DISPUTE. (Per Press Association.—Copyri«ht.J LONDON, February 1. Two thousand builders' laborers in Dublin resume on Monday on the terms existing prior to the strike in September. The union undertakes not to aflow its members to join the Transport Union or to support a sympathetic strike. "A stop work" meeting of the Builders' Laborers' Union decided to refer the w hole legal position of the dispute to the executive, in conjunction with the Building Trades Federation, this branch pledging itself to abide by the decision. The motion was carried by a big majority. A special meeting of the above union will be held on Tuesday, when the whole trouble is expected to lie settled. Lord Robert Cecil, commenting 011 the building dispute, said the masters locked the men out, yet the unemployment benefit was not allowed. The Government had no right to compel men to pay for unemployment benefit w hen such a grave blot on the administration of the benefit existed. t BRITISH WORKERS UMTEIV SPEECH BY A LEADER. NATIONAL PARTY FORMED. LONDON, February .2. The result of the Labor Conference,, said Mr Ramsay Macdonald at Glasgow on Saturday, showed that for the first time Hi the history of the Labor movement in Britain there -was now union between the various> sections of the party. What they wanted was a change in the whole mental attitude of the nations towards socialism, and from that standpoint direct trade unionist action. The Labor movement must be far more careful in future about getting themselves mixed up in unauthorised strikes than heretofore. Mr Holden, the prospective National and Labor candidate at Accrington, has announced the formation of a National Party with its headquarters at Manchester. The programme will be to secure a legal minimum of 30s for all adult men and women in the provinces, and of 35s a week in London, 48 hours a week, and also pay during holidays, in sickness, and unemployment, besides old age pensions at bo. This, it is held, is the only immediately practical proposal for preventing strikes, allaying labor unrest, and solvingvthe problem of poverty. WHARFINGER'S WAGES.

MR 111 (.1 IKS' ARGUMENT. SHIPOWNERS' REPLY. MELBOURNE, February 2. Mr Edward Northcote, chairman of the Commonwealth Steamship K<■•deration, replying to Mr W. M. Hughes' criticism of hi- reasons for refusing the demands for higher pay, says that if Mr Hughes' argument were sound it must apply not only to the shipowner, but to every employer of labor throughout Australia. I'he pastoralist must, irrespective of season, provide a living wage for all those required at any time bv him, if he should have an extraordinary season. The master builder must do the same to meet the emergencies of a brisk building trade, and bootmakers, agricultural implement makers, and every manufacturer must do likewise. Certainly this was a new doctrine, and one which the shipowners, with a knowledge of w hat it means to them in the 'first instance and to the public of Australia finally, are not prepared to accept. Every penny per hour increase granted to the wharf laborer means to the Inter-State Companies alone not less than .{760,000 per annum. STOP WORK MEETING. UNIONS AND SHIPOWNERS. Received Kebruarv 3, 11.55 a.m. t MELBOI RNE, Kebruarv 5. Stop work meetings of the stevedores and wharl workers' unions will be held to-morrow to receive reports from the delegates to the conferences with the steamship owners. RE LI RK OK STRIKERS. MONEY STILL IN HAND, CH RI ST( TIU RC H, Tuesday The strike Relief Committee reports that £2 t'K) w as collected for the period ending July 20, and expended, leaving £"304 in hand. The chief items of expenditure were the relief orders VT1572, railways fares , expenses ancUmeetings /'4O.