MILITANT UNIONS IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24736, 29 November 1945, Page 5

MILITANT UNIONS IN AUSTRALIA

Threat,of General Coal Strike

CHIFLEY REJECTS ULTIMATUM (Special Australian Corresp... N.Z.P.A.J" (Bee. 8.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Nov. 28. A nation-wide battle between militant unions and the' federal Government is developing from the steel works strikes in Newcastle and Port Kembla. -

A threat by the New South Wales miners to stop coal production unless the Federal Government iritervened in the steel strikes met with a blunt reply from the Prime Minister (Mr Chifley). His telegram in reply to the miners' demand for intervention pointed out that the'dispute was in constitutional hands and that there was no justification for the threatened hold-up.

Following Mr Chifley's rejection of the northern miners' management board's ultimatum threatening a general coal strike, representatives of three labour councils and 23 unions have backed up the miners' demand for the Federal Government's inter*vention. Oh the other hand, Mr P. J. Clarey, the president of the Australasian Council of the Trade Union Movement, has been making decisions, which affect the whole movement, without consultation with all the other unions.

The threat by the miners of a complete cessation of coal production is regarded so seriously that the general president of the Miners' Federation (Mr H.- Wells) cancelled his seat on a plane for London. Attitude of Seamen

Australian seamen have now become active in the steel dispute, and tomorrow the Seamen's Union's Federal txecutive will consider the resolution of the Sydney branch of the union urging a general strike of Australian seamen to force the Federal Government to, intervene in the steel strikes.

If the. miners carry out their general strike threat Victorian industry will be paralysed almost immediately. There are no big stocks of coal at Newcastle on which ships can draw for Victorian supplies. - Commenting editorially on the miners' ultimatum to Mr Chifley, the "Sydney Morning Herald" says: "For arrogance and recklessness it would be hard to match, even among the many insolent moves of the Commun-ist-ridden unions in New South Wales. In accents of masters giving orders to their supposed servant, Mr Chifley was enjoined "to effect 'a satisfactory settlement'—satisfactory, that is, to the strikers—under penalty of a major industrial crisis. "No doubt the miners' leaders, acting in conjunction with their Communist friends of the - Ironworkers' Association, were emboldened by the Bunnerong precedent in their attempt to dictate to the Prime Minister. This time, however, Mr Chifley reacted in a manner which did credit to his spirit and judgment. Never was a rebuff better deserved or more urgently needed. The public is sick and tired of the chaos being produced by the Communist-controlled .unions in this State. It is intolerable that the Commonwealth Government and the community at large should be held to ransom in this fashion. The miners may, of course, be bluffing, and Mr Chifley may have, called their bluff, but if they should be so rash as to carry out their threat more than sharp words by the Prime Minister will be needed."

FEDERAL POWERS ISSUE

.NEW REFERENDUM WANTED MELBOURNE, November 28. The Federal Labour Party conference yesterday unanimously decided to ask the Federal Government to arrange a reterendum as early as possible seeking an amendment to the Commonwealth Constitution to enablp the Federal Parliament to legislate for the social and economic needs of Australia.

Although no official announcement was made, it is understood that the decision was influenced by the recent decision of the High .Court of Australia which was construed as an attack upon the powers of the Federal Parliament to appropriate funds for a free medicine scheme, and indirectly as an attack upon all other social service acts of the Commonwealth. Many delegates to the conference expressed serious concern at the High Court decision following the statement by Mr Chifley at Monday's session that there was grave doubt of the validity of all Federal social service legislation, except old age pensions, which are specifically provided for in the Constitution. The view of the conference was that the Government should take at the earliest a referendum seeking power to legislate on a number of questions, including health and social services, price control, the marketing of primary products, industrial powers and investment control.

Another resolution was passed to ask the Federal Government to consider, in co-operation with the State Governments, the nationalisation of all basic industries.

SUBSIDY TO U.S. WOOLGROWERS

(Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 27. The United' States Agriculture Department has announced that the Government is immediately paying a subsidy averaging seven cents per lb for domestic wool to enable growers to compete more effectively with foreign wool on the United States market. The Government is doing this by reducing the price of wool stocks held since 1943. thus encouraging greater use of domestic wool by American manufacturers. The Government purchase price is not altered.

Stocks of domestic wool on .November 1, 1945, totalled 421,000,0001b. Mr C. F. H. Johnson, president of the Botany Worsted Mills, New Jersey, claimed before the Senate's special wool committee that Congress and the State Department had failed to protect the American wool industry properly. He added: "Much has been said about reciprocal trade treaties, but all I can see that we accomplish is to open the door wide to foreign wools. Try. to break into Britain's domestic- markets and also those of its colonies, or its world markets, and you find arrayed to protect them the Empire's whole strength from the Foreign' Office down. Don't forget that included in what they call the foreign market is the United States. We Americans have' every right to wonder whether our policies are formulated in Downing street rather than in Washington."

AUSTRIAN ELECTION

PEOPLE'S PARTY LEADS ON PINAL FIGURES LONDON, November 27. The final results of. the Austrian elections give the People's Party (Catholic) 85 seats, the Socialists 76, and the Communists four. British Government representatives reported that the elections were conducted in an orderly, fair, and quiet manner.

GERMANS EXPELLED FROM PORTUGAL

LONDON, Nov. 27, "Six of the. nine Germans who failed to report for expulsion to Germany from Portugal have escaped to Spain," says the Associated Press correspondent in Lisbon. "They include Herbert Weissmann, formerly Seyss Inqiiart's secretary in Holland. Technically, the Germans obeyed the expulsion order, but they turned down an offer of Allied transport and escort to Germany*" J