PORTS STRANGLED

Grey River Argus, 28 August 1946, Page 5

PORTS STRANGLED

BY EXTREMISTS Australian Employers’ Allegations (Rec. 8.30). CANBERRA, Aug. 27. Chaotic conditions on the waterfront are strangling the Australian ports, according to a report delivered to the Federal Government by the Council of the Employers’ Federations and the Associated Chambers of Commerce. The report claims that there are extremist elements in the Waterside Union who are breaking down the country’s transport system. The coastal ships take twice as long for the round trip as they took before the war, and the loading rate- had fallen from 28 tons an hou'r to .14 tons an hour. The report claims that the abolition of the Stevedoring Commission or the alteration of its personnel is the only way to end the present chaotic position. Among other charges are that the watersiders stop work to listen to the race broadcasts; the foremen are being intimidated by bashers and by criminal ruffians; and the pillaging is still high owing to the Court leniency. The principal cause of the shipping delays, according to the report, is the disregard shown by the men for the awards of the Court, and for the orders of the foremen and of the Stevedoring Commission. Recommendations embodied in the report are: The weeding out of the extremist elements; the re-establish-ment of working round the clock in all of the ports; the replacement of the unfit men by more robust types; the recognition of the right of the employer to make a free selection of labour; and the revision of the Stevedoring Commission’s activities.' To check the pillaging, the report recommends additional police supervision, and also the compilation of a register of those watersiders whose criminal records brand them as. undesirable types.