STRIKES IN AUSTRALIA ATTEMPT TO HALT SPREADING UNREST

Evening Star, Issue 25633, 6 November 1945, Page 5

STRIKES IN AUSTRALIA

ATTEMPT TO HALT SPREADING UNREST

PRIME MINISTER TO GALL CONFERENCE (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 5. In a new approach to employers and employees, the Prime Minister, Mr J. B. Chifiey, lias decided-to call an Aus-tralia-wide peace in industry conference. This decision has been welcomed by both employers',and employees’ representatives. The aim of the conference, which will be he*ld before the end of this month, is to explore the underlying causes of the spreading industrial unrest. Trade unions and employers' organisations will all be asked to send* delegates. They .will discuss the 40-hour week, the basic wage, and holidays and bonuses. The Government hopes that if both sides make a genuine approach to all problems a lot might be achieved. As the ‘ Daily Telegraph’ points out, neither side can get along without the other. “ They can tear each other and the nation to pieces in their mastodonic struggles over small issues,. or they can meet with the understanding that only through a system of constructive co-operation will they save industry and their own lives from disaster,” says the ‘Telegraph.’ It is considered certain that the trade union representatives will press strongly their claims for . a 40-hoiir week and an increase of £1 in the basic wage. Mr Chifiey has already stated publicly that a 40-hour week, would mean a better life for all only if there were more goods at a cheaper price. Otherwise an increase in wages and a decrease in hours would only provide a new impetus to that tail-chasing process which has frustrated the worker for many years. To support Mr Chifley’s argument that increased wages have meant only increased prices, it is pointed out that, although the basic wage has risen from £2 2s to £4 19s in the last .38 years, real purchasing power has risen only . 10s 6d-a week. An employers’ organisation has estimated that a 40-hour week would mean an overall increase of 10 per cent, in the cost of goods and services. It can hardly be said that the Australian arbitration system has been a success, otherwise there would have been no need for the conference called by Mr Chifiey. The Minister of Supply, Senator W. P. Ashley, addressing aggregate meetings of miners yesterday, said one of the chief causes of strikes -in. Australia was the workers’ lack of faith in the arbitration system. He added: “Delays by the Arbitration Court in hearing claims are irksome to workers, ana often lead to otherwise avoidable industrial stoppages.” . ' ■' The president of the Industrial Commission, Mr Justice Taylor, believes that the whole industrial Arbitration Court system should be recast with an insistence on conciliation in industrial disputes. A considerable body of workers, he says, have lost confidence in the arbitration system, which, is too legal and too cumbersome. The whole system must be based first and last on conciliation. Disputes must be handled as they arise; and before they are allowed to develop.