MILITANTS AND MODERATES

Evening Star, Issue 25635, 8 November 1945, Page 5

MILITANTS AND MODERATES

FACTIONS IN TRADE UNION MOVEMENT STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY IN PROGRESS (Rec. 11.35 a.m.) SYDNEY, Nov. 8. •Moves to extend the strikes in New South Wales threaten a cleavage between the militants and moderates in the trade union movement. They are expected to fight out the question of extending the Port Kembla and -the Newcastle steel works stoppages at a meeting of the Trades and Labour Council to-night. If the militants win, many New South Wales heavy industries will have to cease production. Veteran Labour men forecast that within a week or two New South Wales, if not all Australia, will be faced with industrial chaos if the steel strikes are not settled. The struggle for supremacy within the trade union movement became apparent when the loaders of the Port Kembla and Newcastle strikes,- defying the Trades and Labour Council, formed a central committee to control both disputes. The Trades and Labour Counc.iL which is the supreme governing trade union body in the State, was unceremoniously ignored in the formation of the committee. The moderate section of the union officials commands a substantial voting majority in both the Labour Council and its Disputes Committee, _ and they thus far have successfully resisted all attempts by the militants to take drastic action to force a showdown in the commercial printers and steel strikes. The decision to set up a central committee to control the steel strikers is regarded as a defiant challenge to the authority of the Trades and Labour Council, and is the first definite sign pf a breakaway by the militants from ordinary trade union channels for control and settlement of industrial disputes. Each day the number of men out of work grows. About 1,000 employees at Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd., Sydney, have gone on strike as a protest against the dismissal of eight men who refused to load materials consigned to printers’ shops which had been declared black by the Labour Council. These firms had been declared black because they refused to intro-i

duce a 40-hour week with 44 hours’ pay. The strike at Sydney glassworks has been settled following negotiations between the representatives or the employees and the management. All road and rail transport in Adelaide will be suspended for 24 hours from midnight on Sunday in support of the Adelaide tramway strike. This was decided by the Disputes Committee of the Trades and Labour Council. The decision will have a paralysing effect on South Australian transport. It means that all bus and lorry traffic will cease, cutting , off deliveries and the. transport of ’ all passengers and goods traffic in the metropolitan area. It will be the biggest stoppage in the history of the State. The tramwaymen’s strike is in its ninth day. The men say they will not go hack until a conference is held with the Tramways Trust, and the trust refuses to confer until the men go back.