WELLINGTON: An official announcement by the Federation of Labour states that the conference of delegates from the various strike centres, together with the executive of the federation, decided that, in the interests of those most closely concerned, it was wisest to call the nation-wide strike off as from Saturday, 20th instant, for all engaged with the exception of the miners.
The statement adds: ''So far as the miners are concerned, we are but awaiting a conference with the mine owners and the miners' representatives to discuss matters relating to that industry. Once that conference is arranged and matters satisfactorily adjusted the miners will, we believe, be ready to return to work. This, in our opinion, is but a question of days.''
The announcement that the strike had been declared off was the outcome of a mass meeting of strikers in the Olympia Skating Rink. The attendance was one of the largest seen at a strikers' indoor meeting since the trouble began, about 1000 men being present. Mr Glover presided, and practically all the local leaders and many from other parts of the dominion were in attendance, including the delegates to the Federation Conference.
The meeting lasted for about two hours, and altogether there were some dozen speeches. The tenor of them all was that it was useless to hang back any longer, especially in view of the fact that the firemen and seamen had gone back to work.
The strike has lasted just about two months, though for some time past work has proceeded without interruption of any kind at the majority of the ports. The trouble commenced on Friday, October 17, when the Wellington shipwrights asked for an increase in wages, which was not granted. On the following day the shipwrights ceased work. On Monday, October 20, the first mass meeting of the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union was held, when it was decided to call a ''stop-work'' meeting, to be held at 8 a.m. on the following Wednesday.
This ''stop-work'' meeting was held on the wharf in due course, and while the men were attending the meeting, which, being held in working hours, was a breach of agreement, other union men were put on in their places. The union desired that the ''stop-work'' men should be reinstated, but the employers decided that the men's action in breaking the agreement which had been entered into in 1912 terminated the agreement with the union. The union handed the affair over to the Federation of Labour, and the strike followed.
The Dunedin waterside workers were drawn into the conflict on October 30, when the federation decided to call out all waterside workers' unions, requesting them to cease work at once. The Dunedin men did not act immediately on this demand, but on the following day a mass meeting of the union was held, at which about 150 men were present out of a total strength of 300 odd. An open vote was taken, and every man rose in favour of obeying the call of the federation. What followed in this and other ports will still be fresh in the memory. - ODT, 22.12.1913.
