STORMY MEETING

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 November 1946, Page 7

STORMY MEETING

TRADES COUNCIL SUSPENDS UNION ■ LEFT WING OPPOSITION (Rec. 12.40 p.m.) SYDNEY, Nova 1. The Trades and Labouf’Council is moving to suspend the. Sydney branch of the Ironworkers’ -Association until shchAtime as the. union, should give an 'undertaking to abide by the decision’of-the council. Last flight’s .meeting was one of the stormiest Ihisyear and was marked by' a stonewalling effort by the Left Wing unions, which lasted nearly two hours. Following this, the debate was adjourned without’ a decision'-being made. The Left-Wing'delegates 'took seven points of order during the debate, which was. conducted amid; continuous interjections .and' cat-calls. Although hopelesly outnumbered, the Left Wing delegates insisted on counts for each ..point of order, which occupied a third-of the time of the meeting. - - The executive - .-accused the ironworkers of disruptive tactics by walking out of- a disputes committee last Monday. The committee; ; was then considering the strike, of cranedrivers at Morts dock. The actions of the Newcastle members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union were praised by Mr F; Wilson, president of the New South. Wales Building Industry Congress : last night. He said that the engineers had set an example by deciding to hold secret ballots to determine stopwork demonstrations. The general use of the secret ballot would minimise industry-breaking stoppages. After a spell of smooth working, the New South Wales coal? mines have lost 3,600 tons of coal inthe last four days through . strikes and disputes. Yesterday’s loss was* tons.