Tanker Strike In Australia

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31383, 31 May 1967, Page 15

Tanker Strike In Australia

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright?

SYDNEY, May 30.

Petrol and oil tanker drivers in all states will hold a 24-hour strike from midnight tonight.

There are fears that the drivers will decide at meetings tomorrow morning to prolong the strike which could later stop buses through fuel shortages. With the threat of a new rail strike, unless a settlement is reached quickly in the Liverpool safety dispute, the city’s transport could be thrown into complete chaos. The stoppage by tanker drivers will cut off supplies to service stations, bus depots, airline companies and Indus-

try. The strike was called this morning in Melbourne by the federal council of the Transport Workers’ Union. It could bring all road transport services virtually to a halt. A strike in Sydney recently by drivers employed by two companies over the letting of contract carrying to outsiders forced the Government

Transport Department to cancel many services. A Spokesman for the T.W.U. said in Sydney today, “This time, the stoppage will be Commonwealth-wide. Drivers of all companies will be out,” he said. A spokesman for the Government Transport Department said today bus depots throughout the city had sufficient fuel supplies to carry them for a week.