TROUBLED FRONTS

Evening Star, Issue 26000, 15 January 1947, Page 7

TROUBLED FRONTS

AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY MINERS THREATEN STDPPAGE* UNLESS THEY GET MEAT (Rec. 12.35 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 14. The miners’ leaders have warned the Minister of Labour and Industry, Mr Hamilton Knight, that unless meat supplies are made available to the miners stoppages are inevitable. The general secretary of: the Miners’ Federation, Mr G. W. S. Grant, said that unless the miners were able to buy sufficient meat it would be physically impossible for them to carry on. The Miners’ Federation considered that the Government should bring the master'butchers smartly to hefel and make them open their shops. There will be no milk strike in Sydney, according to-a unanimous decision by the executive of the Milk Zone Dairymen’s Council, which has decided to accept the announcement by Mr J. 8., Chifley that the existing subsidy would be increased by the equivalent of Id a gallon. The president of the council, Mr L. O. Turton, said that the increase would total £240,000 a year, and would be equal to nearly 30s a week to each of the 34,000 producers in the milk group. The increase would be retrospective to January 1

END OF GAS DISPUTE IN SIGHT. Sydney gasworkerS will meet this afternoon to discuss a recommendation by the Federal Council of the Gas Employees’ Union to 'return to work at the usual starting time to-morrow. The meeting, which concerns night shift workers only, as day men are not officially on strike, will be preceded by a meeting of the Committee of Management. The committee is certain to endorse the recommendations of the Federal Council, and it is generally expected that the men will do likewise. The militant sections are expected to oppose the return to work, but it is believed the body of opinion is against them. In Adelaide fierce opposition to .resumption is expected. The State Cabinet will to-day consider the decision "of the tram and bus men in'Sydney to hold a one-day strike bn Monday unless they are conceded a five-day 40-hour week, time and a-half for Saturday work, and doublet-time for Sunday. At a stop-work meeting a resolution will be put calling for the stoppage to continue until the claims are granted. The Tram and Bus Unions have already asked the land-transport group for its support in the event of a strike, and have been refused. It is unlikely that other unions will strike in support. ,