Australian Strikes

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23376, 6 December 1945, Page 5

Australian Strikes

No Decision Yet From Conference Strikers Must Make Concessions By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Received 12.50 a.m.) CANBERRA, December 5. PROSPECTS of a settlement as a result of the conference between Mr J. B. Chifley (Prime Minister) and a delegation organised by the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, which was continuing at a late hour to-night, is expected to depend on how far the strike leaders are prepared to make concessions. Nearly one hour late because of a long private discussion among the union leaders, the conference did not start until 3.20 this afternoon. A last-minute incident was the exclusion of the General Secretary of the Seamen’s Union (Mr T. V. Elliott) from the talks, because he had not been invited by Mr P. J. Clarey (president of A.C.T.U.), to whom the Prime Minister left the selection of the delegates. The delegates gave no hint whether their private conference had achieved anything specific to put before Mr Chifley. The indications are that A.C.T.U. is not likely to modify its opposition to the strike, nor will the Prime Minister depart from his attitude of nonintervention. It will probably be a battle of tactics, with A.C.T.U. and Labour Council delegates taking a firm stand behind Mr Chifley. Therefore, concessions by strike leaders must be forthcoming if the conference is to succeed. Mr Clarey commented on his arrival at Parliament House: “I am hopeful that a formula for a settlement will be reached.”

From midnight the electricity supplied to 500,000 premises and tne gas supplied to 200,000 homes, factories and ships in New South Wales will be rationed on a scale without precedent in the history of the State. Tne Sydney “Sun” says that between 300,000 and 400,000 Sydney workshop and factory employees will lose their jcbs to-nignt as the result of rationing, and by the week-end the n libber wni have grown tb 500,000.

ihe impact on industry will be far more serious than during the Bunnerong dispute in October. Industries not affected then but now on the banned list include wireless, beer, ice cream, cakes, pastry, biscuits, processed breakfast goods and cereals. Under the restrictions, gas and electricity may be used for hospitals, clinics, medical and dental practices, care of the sick, aged and infirm persons, the dispensing of medicine, public utilities, the processing and refrigeration or preservation of foodstuffs, the printing of newspapers, wireless broadcasting, lifts and church services.

No gas or electricity may be used for advertisements or signs, radiators or air heaters, hotwater systems, bath heaters, outdoor sports, the manufacture and processing of non-essential foodstuffs, in any warehouse, shop, factory, theatre Or public hall, except for essential services.

The restrictions mean that thousands of housewives will have to do their weekly wash in cold water. Commercial laundries cannot function except for hospital work and no heating of baft water is permitted. The Communists received another rebuff to-dav when an overwhelming majority of building workers in the Metropolitan area ignored a one-day stoppage in the building industry ordered by the Union to discuss improved conditions and wages.

AU rail and tram services will be cut from to-morrow. Tram services will be reduced by 20 per cent. Hundreds of motor trucks will bring emergency food supplies to Sydney if the coal strike continues, as tlie road transport pool established during the war has agreed with the State Government to organise a road service for this purpose. The president of the Miners’ Federation. Mr 11. wells, said that the central executive had decided not to extend the miners’ strike to other States yet in view of the conference to be held in Canberra. No decision would be made until the Canberra talks had concluded.

Settlement Unlikely Union leaders involved in the steel, coal and shipping strikes believe that a settlement formula will emerge from the conference with the Prime Minister, Mr J. B. Chifley, but opinion in well-informed Federal quarters is that there is no possibility of Mr Chifley giving way on any vital issue. In Canberra the belief is that undue importance has been attached in Sydney to the fact that Mr Chifley agreed to receive a delegation organised by the Australasian Council of Trade Unions. Since taking the Prime Ministership, Mr Chifley has had his door almost contir I ally open to representatives of major sections of the community, who claimed that they had a case to state on a particular question with which the Government was concerned.

Members of these deputations have gone away without any satisfactio i except that of a courteous hearing. In the present dispute itself, Mr Chifley has already shown that reception of the delegation does not mean that he is willing to concur with any strike settlement proposals that the deputation might make.