"ROTTEN" STRIKE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 80, 5 April 1943, Page 3

"ROTTEN" STRIKE

SYDNEY WHARVES Leaders' Advice To Men To Resume Rejected N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. 2.30 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. By a majority of 200 a mass meeting of nearly 4000 Sydney waterside workers decided to persist in their refusal to work under a gang system. Pleas by union leaders and other State branches for a resumption of work were disregarded. The original decision in favour of striking. made at a mass meeting of 2000 watersiders on March 28, was almost unanimous. The gang system is already in operation in other States, and was introduced in Sydney a week ago by the Stevedoring Industry Commission. Since then the watersiders have refused to work, and ships have been worked by the army. Under the gang system the men are picked up in gangs of about 20. The gangs may be moved from one job to another as needed, thus eliminating delays in handling cargoes. Under the old system individual men were picked up for particular jobs. Meanwhile about 3000 soldiers have been unloading ships and dispatching supplies for the battle . zones. Union leaders who advised the men to return to work described the strike as "rotten." They fear a serious extension of the strike may take place. "Four thousand able-bodied men cannot be permitted to lounge idly about the waterfront while this country is crying out for manpower— while many other thousands of citizens are being taken from their homes and avocations to work in construction camps." savs the Sydney Morning Herald editorially to-day, urging immediate Government intervention in "a senseless and wrongful" strike. 1 The paper declares that other wartime tasks must be found for workers who have refused to accept conditions agreed to by their own executive. "Indulgence and appeasement only encourage industrial turbulence, the unruly elements apparently being blind or indifferent to the fact that the growth of wartime strikes must be ruinous to a Labour Ministry. "Mr. Curtin is calling upon all people for sacrifices. He and his Government must see to it that' no privileged section escapes the obligation to work or fight while the soldiers are required to fight and work as well," the newspaper concludes.