37,000 MEN OUT

Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 7

37,000 MEN OUT

Great Transport Strike

/. , Australia's Industrial Chaos

; (Rec 11.30 a.m.) » MELBOURNE, October 21. Victoria and South Australia will be without railway services to-day. The tramway employees in Melbourne also began a stoppage at midnight last night. These are the latest Left Wing union moves to dislocate transport and industry in a drive to force the Federal Government to grant higher wages and improved working conditions. The Emergency Committee of the Australasian Council of Trade Unions met yesterday, and framed recommendations on Mr Chifley’s reply to the unions’ demands. The South Australian strike if for 48 hours, but the Melbourne men say they are staying out until their demands are met. ' Neither union has sought the sanction of the Disputes Committee. The Victorian stoppages will involve 27,000 railwaymen, 5,000 tramwaymen, and more than 5,000 members of other unions. The Victorian ironworkers decided yesterday to withdraw labour from all steel and iron foundries in the Melbourne metropolitan area, despite the surprise decision of the moulders against a strike. Inter-State trains between Melbourne and Adelaide have ceased to run. Confusion occurred at the Central Station, Sydney, last night, when a division of the Melbourne 'express was cancelled. One express left for Albury, but many passengers could not get seats, though others decided not to travel, rather than risk an indefinite delay, at Albury. Among the sufferers were the passengers who arrived last Thursday by the Monterey, and who battled till Saturday afternoon to get their baggage cleared. The Sydney waterfront strike may be settled to-day, but no light is seen in other industrial troubles.