STRIKE THREAT IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27873, 23 January 1956, Page 11

STRIKE THREAT IN AUSTRALIA

24,000 Watersiders

To Stop Work

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 21. More than 24,000 waterside workers in 53 Australian ports will go on strike at midnight tonight to demand more wages and better conditions. Most observers believe that Australia faces her biggest Industrial upheaval for 10 years following the failure of a compulsory conference before Mr Justice Ashburner, of the Federal Arbitration Court. The strike comes at one of the busiest and most critical periods of Australian wool and other export shipments.

In Sydney alone, 35 overseas and 11 inter-State vessels will be held up from tomorrow at a cost to shipping lines of more than £33,500 a day. The strike is expected to paralyse overseas and inter-State trade, threaten supplies of raw materials and slow down industry. It has been endorsed by 16 other unions and the powerful Australian Council of Trade Unions. The president of the council (Mr Albert Monk) has already warned: “We will all be in it. It will be the biggest dispute since the war.” The assistant secretary of the Melbourne branch of the Waterside Workers' Federation (Mr D. Bearlin) said last night: “We are preparing to dig in for six months if necessary.” The Minister of Labour (Mr Harold Holt) said in Melbourne that the Government would take such action as was necessary to meet the strike. The strike would plunee the nation into danger and loss. The Federal Cabinet w’ould consider the strike tomorrow. The Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) recently described the proposal to strike as monstrous. He said that it would cause a ruinous hold up of sea trade. Urgency Laws The Canberra correspondent of the “Sunday Telegraph” said the Federal Government may call Parliament together early to rush through emergency legislation to deal with the strike. This legislation would empower courts to freeze the funds of striking unions, and order strikers back to work under threat of imprisonment for contempt of Court. The first legal action Cabinet is likely to take is to ask the GovernorGeneral (Sir William Slim) to proclaim section 30 J of the Commonwealth Crimes Act. This, in practice, would declare the strike illegal on the ground that a serious industrial disturbance had occurred threatening inter-State and overseas trade. Use of Services The three fighting services have made preliminary plans to be ready to move on to the waterfronts as soon as Cabinet gives the order. But Cabinet recognises that troops could only keep emergency cargoes moving and that their use would not settle the dispute.

Feeling' inside the Government is that the strike could last from six weeks to two months.

After the failure of the compulsory conference yesterday Mr Justice Ashburner said that he intended making an interim award for waterside workers, which would have given them some of the things they sought. However, he imposed a condition that the parties in the dispute should give an undertaking to obey his final ruling. The shipowners were agreeable, but the Waterside Workers’ Federation and the Australian Council of Trade Unions would not agree. The waterfront dispute arose from the failure of the parties to agree on wages and conditions. The Watersiders’ Federation asked for an unconditional Is an hour increase. They also wanted: A guaranteed weekly wage of £l2 a week. Payment for statutory holidays for men who do not work. A minimum period of engagement of six hours instead of four. Sick leave payments. The shipowners offered: Sixpence an hour increase. A guaranteed fortnightly payment of £2O, with conditional clauses to speed up ship turn-round and ban stoppages.