QUEENSLAND STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25449, 22 March 1948, Page 8

QUEENSLAND STRIKE

MR SEMPLE’S VIEWS CRITICISED

WATERSIDE WORKERS’ ACTION

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 21. Stirred by cabled accounts of the description given this week by the Minister of Works (Mr R. Semple) of the industrial turmoil in Queensland, the council <jf the Australian Waterside Workers’ Federation, at present in session in Sydney, has challenged the Minister to substantiate his charges. The Australian Watersiders' Executive has instructed its secretary (Mr T. Healy) to telephone the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union requesting it to make public the resentment felt by Australian unionists over what they regarded as a highly-coloured version of the state of affairs. Mr Healy teleohoned the head office of the union in Wellington, but his call was finally put through to Auckland, where the national secretary of the union (Mr T. Hill) was conferring yesterdav afternoon with the president (Mr H. Barnes) over the settlement of the waterfront trouble at that port “Distorted View” It was indicated by Mr Healy that the Minister’s views received a remarkable amount of publicity in Australian papers and that what Mr Semple had said had almost overshadowed the industrial situation. However, it was not the intention of the Australian Waterside Workers’ Federation to comment on the action of a visiting Minister in discussing the internal affairs of a sister Dominion What did concern unionists was what they regarded as a distorted view of the actions . of Queensland trade Unions.

In particular, said Mr Healy, they resented the Minister’s statement that a “bash gang” was operating in Queensland. They objected also to his account of the sufferings of the Australian people because Communists had gained a stranglehold, through the unions, on some of the key industries and essential services and also to his statement that “every method bar shooting” was being used to intimidate workers who argued against strike leaders.

These charges, added Mr Healy, were emphatically denied, and New Zealanders deserved to be told that the strike action was in accordance with the will of the workers. Moreover, oppressive legislation was being opposed. * Mr Healy said that officials of the Australian Waterside Workers’ Federation were elected by secret ballot and the watersiders reached their decisions democratically. That applied to several thousands of the Queensland members of the organisation who were Concerned in the present trouble.