NO CHANGE IN UNIONS’ PLAN

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 11

NO CHANGE IN UNIONS’ PLAN

General Strike In Australia Today (N.Z. Press Association— Copyriohti MELBOURNE, May 21. Massive strikes wracked Australia for the fifth successive day today and the spectre of a national general stoppage loomed closer despite the release from gaol of the Tramways Union secretary, Mr Clarence O’Shea.

As sixty-three-year-old Mr O’Shea walked from Pentridge Prison, Melbourne, after the payment of $BlOO in outstanding union fees, the giant Australian Council of Trade Unions was meeting on labour militants’ demands to take control of the strikes and call a national stoppage.

The outcome of the powerful A.C.T.U.’s meeting was vital. Although Mr O’Shea’s gaoling on a contempt of court charge six days ago provided the immediate occasion for the strife, union leaders made it clear that they would press for reforms in the penal provisions of the arbitration laws under which Mr O’Shea was imprisoned.

The A.C.T.U. president (Mr Albert Monk) is a known moderate on industrial actions, but recent reshuffles have given militant factions a powerful voice in the affairs ■ of the nation’s governing union body. Mr O'Shea was released because fines owed to Arbitration authorities by his union were paid yesterday by a re-i tired advertising executive in Sydney, Mr Dudley MacDougall, who told reporters that he hated the prospect of women and children being affected by strikes. Mr MacDougall had won $200,000 in a lottery. New South Wales today was in the grip of the worst transport strike in its history, with all ferries, buses and trains halted for 24 hours. A day’s general strike was

(scheduled to begin at midI night. i Almost one million workers in Sydney and the satellite cities of Newcastle and Wollongong lined freeways and streets to thumb lifts to work. Many simply stayed home. Metropolitan streets were near-deserted and even city bars reported a huge drop in trade. The New South Wales Transport Minister (Mr Milton Morris) issued pleas to home-bound motorists to “fill your cars, your lorries, your motor-bikes, anything, with hitch-hikers.” Sydney employers this afternoon were sending workers home in shifts in an effort to beat the chaotic congestion. One young law clerk, in herringbone suit and hornrimmed glasses, panted along (a crowded freeway on a child’s scooter. Electricity black-outs in New South Wales were forecast for tomorrow’s general strike, which will force idle

more than 150,000 workers in almost every activity, from night-club entertainment to construction work and hotel bars. In Western Australia, a general strike involving 24 unions will begin at midnight, cutting transport, electricity and food supplies. Victoria was in an uneasy calm today after yesterday’s transport stoppage. South Australia ended a 24-hour general strike. Queensland, where transport workers held a strike two days ago, joined other states in waiting for the A.C.T.U.’s decision. The Government remained silent. Government sources said the Labour Department was counting on Mr O’Shea’s release to drain the “strike fever” of its emotionalism. But they privately conceded that unionism’s apparent determination to strangle the penal laws might nullify the effect of Mr O’Shea’s release.