Engineers' Strike Paralysing Victoria

Northern Advocate, 9 April 1947, Page 5

Engineers' Strike Paralysing Victoria

(Rec. 11.30.) MELBOURNE. This Day. A strike by the Amalgamated Engineering Union, which has developed from a dispute which commenced in November, is disorganising every branch cf Victorian industry.

Complete cessation of metropolitan train services is inevitable if the strike is not settled soon.

Modificatidn of the wage-pegging regulations has enabled the union to re-submit its claim for £1 a week wage increase, and these are being heard by the Conciliation Commissioner today.

After a strike by the union in November, Victorian foundry and engineering firms locked out union members.

Employers invited the men to return to work last January, but the men refused unless their original demand for a wage increase was met.

Engineers, engine-drivers and firemen then decided to extend the strike throughout Victoria. The result has been a curtailment of services and the running of transport and power installations without maintenance.

POLICE ALSO WANT BONUS Policemen have joined railwaymen in pressing for recognition of the work they did during the Easter holiday period. This follows the decision by the State Minister of Transport (Mr O'Sullivan) to give a bonus to tram and bus men who assisted in the transport of nearly 700,000 people during the holidays.

Railwaymen state that rail traffic was also a record this Easter.

The secretary of the New South Wales Police Association claims that police had an even more strenuous time than transport workers.