SHIPS HELD UP AT MELBOURNE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26125, 30 May 1950, Page 5

SHIPS HELD UP AT MELBOURNE

Protest Against Ban On Communist OWNERS THREATEN . DISMISSALS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) MELBOURNE, May 29 Because seamen are refusing to offer for work, only three ships left Melbourne to-day. Eight others are held up. The shipowners have issued an ultimatum that, if the seamen refuse calls, the owners will give notice of dismissal to all seamen. . These arp the latest moves in a dispute which is the first outward indication of industrial action against the Federal Government’s Communist Party Dissolution Bill. Mr W. Bird, secretary of the Victorian Seamen’s Union, called off the seamens strike over the weekend, with certain qualifications, but suggested that the unmanned ships would stay unmanned. Mr Bird called off the strike as a result of a mass meeting of seamen, who decided to approach the Miners Federation and Waterside Workers' Federation to seek nation-wide industrial action against the Communist Party Dissolution Bill. Mr Bird, who was among those named as Communists by the Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) in the Federal House of Representatives, told the meeting: “We want to make a show of obeying law and order until we can gather sufficient forces to carry on the struggle.” He said he had heard at the weekend that unless the men made a show of getting the ships back to sea he would be “picked up” by the security police. The men decided to end the strike, but to instruct their executive to form a committee of management to meet the Federal leaders of the Miners’ Federation and the Waterside Workers’ Federation before next Thursday to discuss forming a common front against the Communist Party Dissolution Bill and the logging of seamen. The meeting condemned the “vicious and savage action bv the owners of robbing the seamen of their hard-won earnings by the antiquated method of logging.” Last Wednesday the shipowners fined seamen on inter-Stat° ships throughout Australia for attending unauthorised stop-work meetings. Meanwhile, gas is still rationed in Melbourne because the seamen's baji is hindering the movement of colliers.

A Canberra report suggests that the Crown law authorities will be instructed 1o examine closely the statements made by Mr Bird during the week-end.