U.S. DOCK STRIKE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28133, 23 November 1956, Page 13

U.S. DOCK STRIKE

Court Order Sought

(Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 21. The United States Government today decided to intervene in the six-day-old dock strike by seeking a Court injunction.

The National Labour Relations Board in Washington authorised its lawyers in New York to seek a temporary restraining order against the International Longshoremen’s Association and its president, Mr William Bradley. They will ask for an order barring the union from insisting on a “multipleport” contract and prohibiting the union from continuing its strike for that purpose.

But if the union obeyed the injunction and abandoned its demand for multiple-port bargaining, it presumably could continue striking solely on economic issues, such as wages and

working conditions. The union has struck at all A*lantic and Gulf of Mexico ports.

The New York Shipping Association, with which it is negotiating, insisted on bargaining solely for the dockers in New York harbour, and not for any contract covering other ports. The union traditionally has negotiated separate contracts for other ports. The New York Shipping Association takes the position that It has no authority to bargain except for the New York area.

The Government’s move apparently is based on the hope that if this issue can be removed the parties may reach a settlement on the remaining issues. A Government weapon still :n reserve is the possibility that President Eisenhower might invoke the national emergency provisions of the Taft-Hartley Labour Law. Such a move by Mr Eisenhower could lead to an 80-day Court order against continuing the strike for any puropse. In San Francisco the union announced that West Coast longshoremen had voted by an 85 per cent, majority to give their negotiating committtee the power to call a waterfront strike, if necessary, to support strikers on the east coast.

Russia Agrees To Family’s Reunion

(Rec. 8 p.m.) CANBERRA. Nov. 22. The Soviet Government has taken the first step to comply with the Australian Government’s request for tha reunion of migrant families, the Minister for Immigration. Mr Athol Townley, announced. He said that the Soviet Government had agreed to give permission to a 56-year-old woman from the Don Basin to leave the Soviet Union to join her daughter and son-in-law in Victoria. The woman. Mrs Lidia Himmelfard. will leave Moscow by air on November 24.

Mr Townley said that this was the first result of the Australian Government’s cabled appeal to the Russian leaders. Marshal Bulganin and Mr Khrushchev, while they were visiting Lohdon to help reunite migrant families.

Japan’s Moscow Embassy.—A delegation from the Japanese Foreign Ministry has arrived in Moscow for talks to set up a Japanese Embassy in Moscow. Illis follows the SovietJapanese agreement last month to exchange ambassadors. —Moscow, November 22.