"Pierre Loti" Held Up By Strike
p. 19 · Read in the full issue
At Noumea
THE Messageries Maritimes Company’s steamer Pierre Loti was held up at Noumea, New Caledonia, at the end of February by a shipping strike which lasted six days.
The strike was a protest against the position of 22 New Caledonian sailors, which was inferior to that of the French sailors of the same ship despite the fact that all members of the crew were under the jurisdiction of the same marine board in France. The French seamen on board the Pierre Loti struck in support of the New Caledonians.
On February 25 an agreement was reached in Paris between the M.M. Com pany and the Marseilles Sailors’
Syndicate which declared that the sailors on the Pierre Loti had only the right to a local contract. The vessel sailed for Sydney the following night, omitting her voyage to the New Hebrides.