£8OO,OOO In Wages Lost Through Q'land Strike

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1948, Page 3

£BOO,OOO In Wages Lost Through Q'land Strike

BRISBANE, Mon. (1 p.rri.).—Because of the long transport strike half the retail trade in Brisbane is now being done on credit. The strike has cost millions of pounds in public and private revenue and is badly delaying interstate and overseas trade.

In six weeks the strikers and men stood down because of the stoppage have lost £BOO,OOO in wages alone.

Retail business in Queensland is at its 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.

Queensland strike leaders flew to Melbourne yesterday in a last minute effort to induce the Australasian Council of Trade Unions to bring about a Commonwealth-wide 24-hour 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 stoppage. The police used batons today in the first major clash with strikersover 400 strikers carrying anti-Hanljfl placards and yelling “Heil Hitler lon, the Fuehrer,” broke through police cordon in a march Brisbane streets to ihe Trades Pickets fought the police police seized placards munist slogans and Several men were hit on when they refused to give u£^Hß|mSf Neon signs on business were smashed during th which ended with the into the Trades Hall.

This season’s sugar crop is in jeopardy, shipment of wool worth £3,000,000 is held up and there has been no food shipment to Britain for a fortnight. TO DEFY UNION? The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen has decided to ask the Federal Arbitration Court to intervene in the strike following the refusal by the State Government to accede to the union demand for fulltime employment if the men return to work immediately. Until the Federal Court gives its decision thq men have been instructed to remain on strike, but the Queensland Railway Commissioner is confident that hundreds of locomotive men will defy their union.

Last Friday 216 trains ran in Queensland and today a further increase is expected.