INDUSTRIAL PEACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26348, 31 December 1946, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL PEACE

QUEST IN AUSTRALIA MOVE BY MAIN PARTIES NEW DISPUTES DEVELOPING fßec. 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 29. Both employers and employees are eager to discuss with Mr Chifley proposals for improving industrial relations. The president of the Australian Council of Employers’ Federations has stated that the council is waiting for the Prime Minister to discuss industrial proposals which include a new approach to taxation in relation to production, the steps necessary to estabr lish goodwill in industry, recognition of the interdependence of the Government, employers, and employees, and plans to ensure full production, without which there can be no check on inflationary trends. Mr Chifley says the conference was dropped earlier because the employers were not unanimous. Mr Chifley will be asked to-day by the Australasian Council of Trade Unions to discuss a suggestion by the council president, Mr ■' P. J. Clarey, for a “peace in in- i dustry” conference. The council also Intends to press the Federal Government for greater relaxation of the wage-pegging regulations. This is already causing friction between the political and industrial wings of the Labour Party. In the meantime, the gas dispute in Melbourne and Adelaide may develop to-day to a stage in which Sydney will again participate. Butchers’ shops in Sydney and Newcastle will close on January 6 until the ceiling prices of meat are raised or the prices of live stock are controlled. Milk suppliers will not send milk to Sydney and Newcastle after a date to be fixed by the Milk Zone Dairymen’s Council in an endeavour to force the Government to girant a minimum wholesale price of Is 8d a gallon for milk. Victorian trains will probably cease running next Sunday until the demand, for double time for Sunday work is granted to the railwaymen.