MAIN ISSUE SETTLED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 5

MAIN ISSUE SETTLED

AUSTRALIAN STEEL STRIKES MEN EXPECTED TO RESUME SYDNEY, Jan. 4. The steel strikes at Port Kembla and Newcastle now seem certain to end next week. The Industrial Commission’s decision, ordering the reinstatement of Parker, has removed what the union holds to be the main issue of both steel strikes. Mass meetings at Port Kembla and Newcastle will discuss the decisions of the Industrial Commission and all other relevant matters. „. , , Prominent trade union officials described the commission’s decision as a vindication of the arbitration system. They said that if the Communist officials of the Ironworkers’ Union had adopted the advice of the trade union movement and instructed Parker to appeal to the commission, there need never have been a slrike. The commission stood over the application by the Ironworkers’ Union for re-registration because the union failed to give any undertaking about its future conduct. The leaders of the two large unions involved in the strikes announced that their members would be instructed to return to work. The secretary of the Clerks’ Union, Mr J. Hughes, said “The court’s decision that Parker be reinstated removes the final obstacle to settlement. We are not interested in the re-regis-tration question.” The secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, Mr N. Thom, said “We are not concerned with whether the ironworkers are re-registered. So far as our members and the strike are concerned, the reinstatement of Parker settled the issue.”