Queensland Strike Costs Millions Of Pounds

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 March 1948, Page 5

Queensland Strike Costs Millions Of Pounds

(Rec. 12.5 p.m.) BRISBANE, This Day. Because of the long transport strike, half the retail trade in Brisbane is now being (lone on credit. The strike has cost millions of pounds in public and private revenue and in six weeks the strikers and the men stood down because of the stoppage have lost £BOO,OOO in wages alone.

Retail business in Queensland is at the lowest ebb for years. The State housing, programme is at a standstill. The. railways have lost £1,500,000 in revenue and cargoes worth £2,500,000 are tied up in idle ships. This season’s sugar crop is in jeopardy. A shipment of wool worth £3,000,000 is held up and there has been no food shipments to Britain for a fortnight. ' The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive enginemen has decided to ask the Federal -Arbitration Court to intervene in the strike, following a refusal by the State Government to accede to the union demand for full-time employment if the men return to work immediately. . Until the Federal Court gives its

decision the men have been instructed to remain on strike, but the Queensland Railway Commissioner is confident that hundreds of the locomotive men will defy their union. I Last Friday 216 trains ran in Queensland and today a further increase is expected. : The Queensland strike leaders flew to Melbourne yesterday in a last1 minute effort to ‘induce the Australasian Council of Trade Unions to bring about a Commonwealth-wide 24hour stoppage on Wednesday as a protest against the Queensland Government anti-picketing laws. Members of the Australian Workers’ Union in Queensland, totalling 56,000, have been instructed not to observe the i stoppage.