Wharf Delay : Thousands May Lose Work

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 February 1947, Page 5

Wharf Delay : Thousands May Lose Work

(Recd. 11.10 a.m.) SYDNEY, February 10. Thousands of men in other industries would be without work because of the wharf hold-up, said shipping representatives. There was now a vast accumulation of cargo on the wharves and the problem would soon become an industrial crisis. Since last Tuesday the Australian watersiders have refused to work overtime. Following the union decision, there was no work on the Sydney wharves during the week end The men will be completely idle on Wednesday, which is the union’s picnic day. A spokesman for the shipowners said that the union had refused labour to load food snips for Britain on Wednesday. The elimination of the night shift mainly affects ships with highest priorities, such as vessels carrying food and wool. The dispute will come before the Federal Arbitration Court today. .

The Australasian Council of Trade Unions, which should be the chief upholder of industrial arbitration, had now openly joined with the Communists in their attacks aimed at destroying arbitration, said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. R. G. Menzie. The nation had fallen into a state of midsummer madness. Every recent strike had been not against the employers, as such, but against the Chifley Government’s own economic controls. “As the Government is characterised mainly by a queer mixture of pig-headed silence and complete inaction, each struggle ends with a Government retreat and therefore with the certainty that another contest will be opened a week later, he added. Union leaders are now demanding tax cuts and the restoration of the deduction system for family taxpayers in place of the rebate system. Yet when we of the Opposition advocated these changes, we were accused by Labour leaders of political dishonesty.”