REDS REBUFFED IN BID TO PARALYSE VIC. TRANSPORT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23271, 5 June 1950, Page 5

REDS REBUFFED IN BID TO PARALYSE VIC. TRANSPORT

(11 a.m.) MELBOURNE, June 5. Though no trains are running in Victoria today, the 24-hour stoppage undertaken by the militant unions as a protest against the Communist Party Dissolution Bill will not be as severe as at first expected. Tramwaymen voted 90 per cent against the stoppage and jeered at the secretary of the Tramways Employees’ Association, Mr. C. O'Shea, for recommending the stoppage. A mass meeting carried an amendment condemning the bill as contrary to the principles for which two world wars were fought. It declared that if any action were taken against any unionists under the bill, the Tramway Employees’ Association would support, the recommendation by the Australian Council of Trade Union. This vote is described as a severe rebuff to the Communists. It means that the bus service will continue to link with inter-State trains and will run skeleton suburban services.

Though the Meat Employees’ Union called for a stoppage, most butcher shops in Melbourne have remained open.

Labour Party group leaders in the building unions report that most building workers defied the call by the Building Trades Federation for a stoppage. Seamen and watersiders have refused an Invitation to participate.