Reverse Decision On Strike Issue

Northern Advocate, 14 March 1947, Page 7

Reverse Decision On Strike Issue

(11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The New South Wales Trades and Labour Council has reversed -its previous decision concerning a general strike on May Day. and now opposes the strike. The decision was carried by 134 votes to 84, indicating that a considerable body of opinion in the council had changed sides. The council decided to ask the Australasian Council of Trade Unions to call an emergency meeting of its executive to consider the position. Delegates said after the meeting that the Australasian Council’s policy of a May Day strike throughout Australia still bound the New South Wales unions because of the majority decisions of other states. The stoppage is part of the plan for a 40-hour week and New South Wales participation is rendered superfluous by the fact that the State 40-hour Bill has passed the Legislative Assembly and is now before the Upper House. WHARF DISPUTE UNSETTLED The state president of the Waterside Workers’ Federation (Mr W. Coghlan) denies Canberra reports that an early settlement of the Sydney wharf strike is likely. He says he knows of no negotiations for settlement and that in any case a mass meeting will have to approve a return to work. The Minister of Supply (Senator Ashley) will today discuss the dispute with officials of the federation in Sydney. , Apparently the Sydney branch is disregarding i-epresentations made by the Federal executive members in Canberra. No work has been done on Sydney wharves this week. The first result of the stoppage has been a potato famine, though three ships lie at Sydney wharves with more than 43.000 bags of Tasmanian potatoes. The Gatineau Park. with timber from New Zealand, is also involved.