DEADLOCK AT CONFERENCE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24748, 13 December 1945, Page 5

DEADLOCK AT CONFERENCE

CHIFLEY'S MEETING WITH UNIONISTS ARBITRATION SYSTEM UPHELD SYDNEY, December 12. The conference at Canberra last night between the Prime Minister (Mr J. B. Chiftey) and other Federal ministers on the one hand, and union delegates on the other, ended in a deadlock. Mr Chifley. in spite of outspoken and at times virulent criticism by officials of the Ironworkers 1 , Coal Miners*, and Seamen's Unions, is understood to have refused to endorse the terms put forward by the anions for settling the present strikes because they involved evasion of the arbitration system, which the Government was pledged to support. Mr Chiffey is understood to have told the onion delegation that the Government would stand inflexibly by the arbitration system. The president of the Australasian Council of Trade Unions (Mr P. J. Clarey) announced that the union's terms had been submitted to the Broken Hill Proprietary, which had rejected them. He said ■ that the unions were continuing 'negotiations with the Broken Hill Proprietary in an effort to have the terms accepted. The "Sydney Morning Herald" says: "The centra] issue at the conference was clearly whether the officials of the Communist-controlled Ironworkers' Union should be recognised by the Broken Hill Proprietary before the union is reregistered by the New South Wales Industrial Commission. It is obvious that the Broken Hill Proprietary's rejection of the union's pro'posals was based mainly on that point, and that Mr Chifley's insistence on the maintenance of the arbitration system referred to the same point. "It is understood that the Communist officials of the striking unions concentrated almost entirely on obtaining Mr Chifley's support for the recognition issue, in the hope of saving face with their members and the trade union movement for having provoked the strikes." After the' conference, which sat for five hours and a half, Mr Clarey made the only official statement. He said: "I and my colleagues consider that the discussions which have taken place •have been useful and have served a good purpose." Results of Continued Stoppages During the discussions the Minister of Supply (Mr .W. P. Ashley) warned the union delegates of the' dangers of a continued , stoppage. He said that his experts had advised him that almost all the metropolitan and most of the country transport might have to cease unless some coal was won between now ?nd Christmas, and that the present electricity and g as rationing was on a comparatively minor scale compared with what might have to be imposed if the strikes continued. >

In Sydney the State Minister of Local Government 'Mr J. J. Cahill) said that unless coal supplies became available there would be a tota] gas and electricity black-out by Christmas. He added that the Government bad been told that the earliest date that coal, was likely' to be available was January 7. "The truth is that the present coal stocks will not lost out till then." he said. Unemployment is now growing in all industries. About 550.000 persons are expected to be unemployed in New South Wales to-day ; v/hen tens of thousands of notices served a week ago will expire. By last night about 400.000 New' South Wales workers had been stood down in six days. New South Wales is now losing wages and production at the rate of about f 5.000,000 weekly. Sugar refining has ceased, ' and housewives yesterday made pnother rush to buy extra stocks of food. Mr Chiney said that a legal opinion was being sought on the powers of the Commonwealth and New South Wales Governments to devise a plan to control the distribution of coal. The Commonwealth would share the financial responsibility for the scheme if it were introduced, but it had to examine the constitutional difficulties in the way.

STRIKE THREAT IN AMERICA UNITED STEELWORKERS’ COMMITTEE PITTSBURGH, Dec. 11. After a secret ballot of 400,000 workers, including aluminium and steelworkers and iron ore miners, the United Steelworkers' Wage Policy Committee decided to . call a nationwide steel strike on January 14. The committee further resolved: “We condemn Mr Truman’s proposed legislation as viciously anti-labour and an attack on our basic democratic liberties. A fact-finding board for the steel industry is unnecessary. Such a proposal is but a false trial of fruitless delays which can only undermine labour.”

The Associated Press says that the strike would be the largest in American history. It is estimated that the strike would involve 700,000 workers in 800 companies. The issue is the steelworkers' demand for a wage increase "of two dollars a day. This demand the companies rejected on the ground that wages could not be raised without a commensurate increase in the prices of steel products.