STRIKE GRIPS AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 13

STRIKE GRIPS AUSTRALIA

Troops May Man

Wharves

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 24. \ ital industries and services are already beginning to feel the effects of the national waterfront strike, which has tied Up more than 100 ships in 53 Australian ports. The chiefs of Australia’s three armed services today issued the order “Be ready to man the docks within 24 hours,” to all Navy, Army and Air Force units.

But Reuter's Canberra correspondent said the Federal Government is not expected to use troops unless the strike creates a really desperate crisis.

The Federal Cabinet is scheduled to meet again next week. If there is no settlement by then, it is hopeful that the Australian Council of Trade Unions will withdraw the support it has given the strikers.

The correspondent said reports reaching Canberra showed that most unions, excepting were opposed to the strike. The miners are understood to be willing to give strong support in return for the help the waterside workers gave them jn the disastrous 1949 coal strike.

Tonight Mr A. E. Monk, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, will discuss the strike with the Labour Minister (Mr E. H. Holt). When he arrived in Canberra today, Mr Monk said: “The position is very grim. The shipowners have made it grim.” Strikers picketed the wharves in several States today. As they did so, shipowners applied to the Arbitration Court for an interim award prohibiting the Waterside Workers’ Federation from taking part in any bans, limitations or restrictions on work. The application asked to have a penalty clause inserted in the waterside workers’ award, and it also sought the reopening of the hearing of part of their log of claims.

A shipowners’ spokesman said the Waterside Workers’ Federation strike action represented a “deliberate departure” from the system of arbitration. The strikers had repudiated the process of the law, and were attempting to enforce their claims by direct action, regardless of the consequences to the community. The strike began at midnight on Sunday. after the breakdown of talks between watersiders and shipowners and the failure of a compulsory conference called by the Arbitration Court to discuss the watersiders’ claims for wage increases and for better working conditions.

Wool-buying countries have not allowed their bidding to be affected by the strike. They bought freely at wool sales in Sydney today, and the market was firm compared with yesterday’s rise of up to 2£ per cent, on the last Sydney series. The most noticeable feature was heavier buying on behalf of Britain and Japan. In Melbourne shipping officials said today that liners would be kept running. They would leave without cargo and the crews would handle passengers’ baggage. The Orontes is scheduled to leave on Saturday, and the Orsova early next week. Inter-State shipping companies today prepared to pay off the crews of their cargo vessels. Hundreds of officers, seamen, firemen and stewards not directly involved in the watersiders’ strike will lose their jobs. With inter-State ships idle, supplies of coal needed to maintain essential services and industry will soon begin to dwindle. Unless the strike ends, gas rationing will be enforced in some States and many factories will be forced to lay off employees.