AUSTRALIAN DISPUTES

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1946, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN DISPUTES

GOVERNMENT MAY INTERVENE AT DOCKYARDS WHARF STRIKE THREAT (Rec. 11.40 a.m.j CANBERRA, December 5. The Prime 'Minister. Mr. Chifiey. has given an undertaking to the unions to seek the intervention of the court for th? ■setilern.-'nt oT-i/e Syiney shipyards dispute. He also slated that consideration would be given to their request that the Government should take over the shipyards. The granting of an interlocutory injunction in the High Court, restraining the Stevedoring Industry Commission from making any orders gianting the waterside workers annual leave witlT pay until ah action now before the court has been heard, mi eatans fresh trouble on the waterfront. Discontent Reported. The Federal Secretary of the* Waterside Workers’ Federation said: “It now appears that, having pursued all constitutional channels, the federation will have to take direct action to enforce its claim.” He added that .the injunction was sure to cause great discontent among the 20,000 waterside workers throughout Australia. He said the waterside workers were now the only large body-of unionists covered by a Federal award who did not receive that benefit. The claim was first made to the Arbitration Court in 1939.

The New South Wales State Labour caucus has refused to ask the Prime Minister, Mr. Chifiey, to lift the wage-pegging regulations “to prevent a general transport strike.” Members of the caucus,- says the Daily Telegraph, clashed frequently in a debate on a motion- urging that the caucus take this action. The debate began when the Minister of Transport, Mr. O’Sullivan, warned the meeting that a general transport strike was likely soon in New South Wales, because the transport workers were pressing hard for more pay and for special week-end rates. Mr. W. Sheehan, who moved that the caucus ask Mr. Chifiey to lift the wage-pegging regulations, said the Government should take more drastic action to prevent the threatened transport hold-up. Caucus Cleavage. The Premier, Mr. McKell, opposed the motion. He said it was nothingless than a move to censure Mr. Chifiey and the Federal Government for their attitude to the wage-peg-ging problem. Mr. Sheehan replied that it was time the Federal Government was told in plain language what certain sections of the Labour Party thought about wage-pegging. He denied that he was censuring Mr. Chifiey or any Minister of the Federal Government.

Members who spoke during the debate indicated that there was a cleavage in the caucus with one group supporting Mr. McKell and the other group supporting Mr. Sheehan.

INSUFFICIENT VOTES (Rec. 11,30 a.m.) LONDON. December 4. The French Communist leader, M. Maurice Thorez was the only candidate for the premiership when the Assembly voted to-day. He was not elected, however, because he failed to get sufficient votes. He obtained 259 votes instead of the required number, 310. The Associated Press Paris correspondent says the M.R.P. and Radical Socialist Party abstained from voting. The M.R.P. announced that it would put forward its own candidate at the second balloting—either the Premier (M. Bidault) or the former Minister of Finance (M. Schuman). An earlier message stated that after a long meeting which ended in the early morning, the French Socialist Party decided to support the candidature of the Communist leader, M. Maurice Thorez, for the premiership. The Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent says that though supporting M. Thorez’s candidature, the Socialists will not decide until later whether to participate in M. Thorez’s Cabinet.