AUSTRALIAN EXPORT OF WOOL HELD UP BY STRIKE

Evening Star, Issue 26153, 15 July 1947, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN EXPORT OF WOOL HELD UP BY STRIKE

(Rec. 1 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 15. Unless the industrial dispute is quickly settled, six ships may have to leave Sydney without their cargoes. No wool was delivered at the wharves yesterday. Members of . the Storemens' and Packers’ Union refused on Friday to operate the presses for dumping wool unless more men were employed. The union demands that where three- or four men have been employed on a press one extra man should be provided, and that in wool units there should be 20 men instead of 15. At a compulsory court conference the Conciliation Commissioner, Mr D. V. Morrison, said that he would not hear the storemen until they returned to work “ I view this situation so seriously,” he said to the union representative, “ that if I had the right to retaliate as I should I would say that you should have neither your award nor your registration. Unfortunately I do not think I have the power to deregister the organisation, but I call upon the court to take what action it thinks fit. You are holding up the export of wool—Australia’s greatest asset.”