Page image
Page image

E. KENNEDY.]

9

T.—9a.

Wellington, so that we might get the power of the law behind it. Our next step was to go to the Court, and at the finish the award covering the four or five industries in the iron trade will be all the same, and when you read one you read them all —everything will be word for word. There you will have five awards in an industry, all the awards being the same, and yet it takes all that trouble to get it 69 As to the place and method of employment, you are also asking for the power of the law to give effect to something you have had in operation for years ?—Yes. If the words I suggest as to " industrial matters " are allowed, the Court will have power to give us the clause we have had in operation for ten years There is a doubt about it : the Judge has expressed a doubt He said it worked well all over New Zealand ; and I am satisfied it worked well, but if it is taken away the whole organization will be broken down 70. Hon. Sir W. H. Herries.] If the Court of Appeal decides in your favour it will be all right ? Yes, that is so. 71. Mr. S. 67. Smith.] Is your organization attached to the Alliance of Labour ? —No. 72. Do you know anything about the Alliance of Labour ?—No. 73. What has been the effect of the Alliance of Labour —industrial trouble, or otherwise ? — Nothing at all. Ido not know that it has had any effect : it is only a name. If I send to Auckland for John Brown, and to Wellington for John Smith, and to Christchurch for some one, and to Dunedin for some one, it is an alliance of labour. It is only a matter of talking over a question. 74. Mr. Howard.] Ido not think this point should be misunderstood. You desire to form one union for the one industry under the Act ? —Yes, under the Act. 75. The " one big union," as generally known for striking purposes, would be outside the Act ? —Yes. 76. And you, believing in the Act, want to counteract that position by getting your union under the Act ? —Yes, that is so. 77. You stand loyally by the Act ?—Yes. 78. Hon. Sir W. H. Herries.] The other people could form under the Trades Union Act ? —Yes ; but you can do it outside, without any Act at all. William Thomas Young examined. (No. 4.) 1. The Chairman.] What is your position, Mr. Young I—l1 —I am secretary of the Seamen's Union. 2. I understand you wish to tender some evidence in connection with the Bill introduced by Mr. Savage ?—Yes. I have committed my evidence to paper, and with your permission I will read it. I may say that the first portion of it deals with the general principle of the Bill as it affects the seamen, and the second portion deals with the principle as it affects labour generally. It is as follows : The Seamen's Union embodies exclusively a floating membership working in this industrial district to-day and in another district to-morrow, and in. that respect is entirely different to any shore union of workers, whose members are always in the district and generally working in the city or town where the union is registered. It is made up of bosuns, quartermasters, lamp-trimmers, able seamen, ordinary seamen, deck-boys, donkeymen, engine-room storekeepers, greasers, coal-burning firemen, oil-burning firemen, trimmers, wipers in oil-burning vessels, and crews-attendants. These men are employed on all classes of ships, inclusive of sailing-vessels as well as steam and auxiliary, trading in the New Zealand coastal trade, New Zealand - Australian trade, New Zealand - Indian trade, New Zealand - American trade, New Zealand - Canadian trade, and other incidental trades such as to Singapore and other Eastern ports, and the Chatham Islands. These men arc employed as well as discharged at all ports of New Zealand. A man may be employed on a ship to-day at Dunedin, in the Otago Industrial District, and in a week's time discharged at Auckland, in the Northern District; he may get re-employment at Auckland in another ship, and may be discharged at Wellington, in that district, in three or four days ; he may then get re-employment at Wellington in another ship, and in a day or two be discharged at Lyttelton, in the Canterbury District. Under the industrial agreement between the shipowners and the union a man may be discharged in the port in New Zealand where he signed the current articles, or at Auckland, Onehunga, Wellington, Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, or Dunedin, and he cannot object to accept his discharge at any one of these ports. This is quite different to a shore union—such, say, as the Wellington Tramways Union—whose members are every day constantly employed in this city where the union is registered. Under the existing industrial law an industrial association may be formed of not less than two industrial unions of workers. The seamen have a union at Auckland, in the Northern Industrial District; one at Wellington, in the Wellington District; and one at Dunedin, in the Otago and Southland District; and these throe industrial unions have formed an association of workers under the Act; but the seamen have not a union in the Canterbury Marlborough, Nelson, Westland, or Taranaki Districts. Thus seamen have, under the existing state of things, no legal status in any one of these five districts, although they are constantly being engaged, worked, and discharged at the various ports in each of them. It may be pointed out, for example, that a good percentage of members of the Wellington registered union regularly sail out of Auckland in Auckland local vessels, such as those of the Northern Steamship Company, and a fair percentage of Auckland registered-union members regularly sail, in Wellington, local vessels and Napier local vessels in the Wellington district, and there are a percentage of Dunedin registered-union members regularly sailing in Auckland local ships and Wellington local ships. By existing law a member of the Dunedin Union has no legal status outside the Otago and Southland District; a member of the Wellington Union no legal status outside the Wellington District, and a member of the Auckland Union no legal status outside the Northern Industrial District. Thus a registered industrial union can legally regard a member of a union registered in another district as a non-unionist, and, if it has a preference, bar him legally from getting employment on board ship if it has one of its own members ready and available to take the work, and the member of the union registered in another district could only secure equal legal rights by enrolling in the union of the district where he sought employment. To overcome this as far as possible the three registered unions of seamen have entered into a moral arrangement whereby members of any one of the three unions shall be recognized and treated as

2—l. 9a.

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert