WAGE RATES IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25090, 23 January 1947, Page 8

WAGE RATES IN AUSTRALIA

REVIEW SOUGHT BY UNIONS INDUSTRIAL UNREST LIKELY SYDNEY, January 22. Officials of the Australasian Council of Trade Unions will ask for another review of wage-pegging regulations when they see the Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) in Canberra tomorrow. Council officials conferred with representatives of the metal trade unions and decided to warn Mr Chifley that grave unrest would continue in heavy industries tmtil the regulations were revised. The secretary (Mr A. E. Monk) said that the future industrial peace of Australia rested entirely In Mr Chifley’s hands. He discounted rurhours of a general strike, which have been persistent in Sydney and Melbourne, but emphasised that much would depend on Mr Chifley’s attitude. The conference discussed in broad terms the possibility of an extension of the Victorian metal trades dispute to Sydney and the eventual inclusion of more than ‘ 100.000 employees in land metal shops. Miners’ Federation officials have warned the New South Wales Minister of Mines (Mr J. M. Baddeley) that unless the Coal Mines Regulation Act is drastically amended during the first Parliamentary session there will be an outbreak of strikes in the New South Wales coalfields. The secretary (Mr G. W. S. Grant) says the miners are losing patience with promises and they want action. The federation demands more than 60 amendments in the act.