A NEW PROVINCE FOR LAW AND ORDER 2ii certainty of general loss, unemplojmient, misery, this would also help to the solution of the problem." *^ Transport workers, especially, of all kinds, are always made to bear the brunt of the struggles of other unionists. The grievance is not the grievance of his union and there is nothing for the Court to arbitrate about, no subject matter in dispute between the sym- pathetic striker or his union and any employer. It may be said that an arbitration court cannot be expected to achieve the im- possible, that it must stop short of a case in which there is no alleged industrial grievance as between the sympathetic striker and his employer, and that the Court ought not to attempt to take away the right of every man to put his hands in his pockets and to say, "I shall not accept the work offered — no matter what my reason may be." Individual freedom of action to work or not to work must be preserved at all costs; and yet it cannot be right that the community should be wilfully held up in its necessary activities when the community provides means for preventing the oppression of the poor for their poverty. It would be a great gain to the community if each union were to confine its efforts to its own grievances. In the case of the engine-drivers, a class of workers whose members are found in all sorts of undertakings, the Court intimated that an award for such a craft should be regarded as a special privilege entailing special obligations, and asked what the members would do for instance in a strike of miners — would they lower and raise the ofl&cials and any men remaining at work? The leaders of the union were reasonable, admitted that the members should do so, and gave the Court an undertaking to that effect. Then, in the case of the Merchant Service Guild, I found that the masters and officers of the vessels were required to con- tract to do manual work if and when required. This was obviously meant to provide for the case of the seamen or others striking. The guild objected to this clause, and the Court forbade the inser- tion thereof in any contract. The masters and officers were to carry out their own function, whatever men of other unions did. In the case of the waterside workers just quoted, where so many members joined in a sympathetic strike in aid of the New South Wales railway employees — employees whom the Court had no
- Waterside workers, 30 August, 1917, 11 Com. Arb. (1917).
