DOCK STRIKE IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27499, 5 November 1954, Page 13

DOCK STRIKE IN AUSTRALIA

No Sign Of Early

Settlement (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, November 4. Australia’s nation-wide waterfront strike continued today without any signs of the situation improving. The Federal Government is reported to be prepared for a showdown with the Waterside Workers’ Federation and to be examining the problems involved in the use of troops on the waterfront. The Government’s policy was described today as one of “moderation, but firmness.” The Government intends to press ahead with its plans to transfer the right to recruit waterfront labour from the Watersiders’ Federation to the Stevedoring Industry Board. It is over this issue that the watersiders have gone on strike.

The Canberra correspondent of the Sydney “Sun” says the Government is expected to await the outcome of talks between the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the watersiders in Melbourne on Monday and Tuesday. The Government is prepared to pledge that it will re-examine the situation on the employment of water-

front workers early next year in the light of experience and of any report from the committee of inquiry which the Government intends to set up into the waterfront situation. The men object to the Government’s move, which will authorise the employers to nominate men to become waterside workers. The federation at present has sole rights to admit men to union membership. Only after they obtain this membership pan they work on the wharves. In Melbourne today, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (Mr A. E. Monk) denied that the waterside strike was “purely a Communist plot” as alleged by the Labour Minister (Mr H. E. Holt). Mr Monk said he was disappointed the Government had not accepted his council’s proposal that amending legislation on the stevedoring industry should not be introduced until a public inquiry had been held.

More Than 150 Ships Delayed. In Sydney,. 52 ships are held up, including 27 overseas vessels. Throughout Australia more than 150 ships are tied up. About 150,000 tons of steel and steel products at Newcastle and Port Kembla, and more than 35,000 tons of coal, are included in the strikebound cargoes. In Melbourne. Sir John Allison, president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, said warehouses wbuld become jammed with wool, butter, cheese, and eggs if the strike continued. He said one Melbourne import house already had laid off 60 storemen. He predicted that immediate import shortages would include food, decorations and toys ordered for Christmas. In Queensland, exporters fear sugar exports will be badly hit unless the strike ends early next week. Melbourne and Adelaide, which have only three weeks’ supplies of gas, fear blackouts if the strike continues. Hundreds of miners face retrc ment as coal mines reach the limit ci’ dumping facilities.