TIMBER WORKERS

Otago Witness, Issue 3911, 26 February 1929, Page 30

TIMBER WORKERS

THE AUSTRALIAN DISPUTE.

ADELAIDE MEN TO RESUME. ADELAIDE, February 19.

The timber workers decided to offer for work this' morning under the terms of Mr Justice Lukin’s award.

VIGOROUS ATTACK ON AWARD. SYDNEY, February 19.

The introduction of volunteer labour in the timber mills, which began yesterday, has given a new and probably a decisive turn to the timber strike. The officers of the Australian Council of Trade Unions believe that this phase necessitates employing the usual strike boycott by declaring black everything entering or coming out of the yards, but the local Strike Committee is afraid that this policy would lead to an tinwieldly extension of the strike in view of the slackness of financial support. Three thousand men vigorously applauded denunciations of the timber award and the court at the Town Hall. Unrestrained attacks upon the Arbitration Court and incitements to the trade union movement to resist the operation of the timber workers’ award characterised the speeches. Mr Theodore, a member of the House of Representatives, led the attack. He said that the timber workers had been singled out in a general onslaught on the wages and conditions of Australian workers in a well-devised scheme by the employers, acting in conjunction with the Governments of Australia and the States. Mr J. S. Garden, referring to Mr Justice Lukin’s award, shouted: “ If this is the law then to hell with the law.” In the course of later remarks Mr Garden, referring to Mr Justice Lukin, said: “If I had my way I would give him a long, long holiday.” Mr Garden alleged that the timber merchants had faked the figures and kept a double set of books. MEN DRIFTING BACK TO WORK. SYDNEY, February 20. A large number of timber workers in the Newcastle district have resumed work with the knowledge that they are binding themselves to observe a 48-hour week. The men at Wagga, as the result of a secret ballot, resumed work under Mr Justice Lukin’s award. DRIVERS CALLED OUT. SYDNEY, February 21. All the timber yards operating under Mr Justice Lukin's award were yesterday declared black by the Sydney Disputes Committee. Two hundred transport drivers have been called out on strike. The Attorney-General (Mr J. G. Latham) stated that he had been informed of cases of intimidation of volunteer workers, both in Sydney and in Melbourne, yesterday. A CONSTABLE ATTACKED. MELBOURNE, February 20. Fifteen women, said to be wives of timber workers, attacked a plain-clotheS constable outside the Caulfield Mill. They knocked him down and belaboured him with umbrellas, shouting and shrieking, and tore his shirt to shreds. They fell on him, and one Amazon in the last round sat on his head. Five hundred people looked on and laughed themselves to tears. They gave no help to the victim. Two uniformed policemen arrived, brandished their batons, and arrested five shrieking, hysterical women.

VOLUNTEERS ATTACKED. SYDNEY, February 22. A party of 20 men committed a brutal attack upon three volunteer timber workers. Two were admitted to the hospital. The attackers were driven to the scene of the assault in a motor lorry. MELBOURNE, February 22. Timber strikers motored to Vine’s Mills, Surry Hills, to-day, and viciously assaulted volunteer workers inside the mills with bars of iron, slingshots, and improvised batons. Two volunteers were taken to hospital. The attackers decamped in a car before the arrival of the police.

VICTORIAN MEN DIVIDED. MELBOURNE, February 22. Practically the whole of the bushmilling industry in Victoria is now at a standstill. Large numbers of timber workers displayed oppositon to the continuance of the strike, and but for extremists in the organisation and pickets would quickly renounce the directions of the union.

OTHER WORKERS CALLED OUT. SYDNEY, February 23. The Disputes Committee of the Labour Council has called out all the clerks, electricians, and sheet metal workers in an endeavour to complete around the timber yards that have been declared black a circle through which free labourers cannot penetrate. . Approximately £3OOO in strike pay was distributed yesterday. Numerous assaults by pickets on timber workers have occurred.