4500 FOUNDRY HANDS MAY LOSE JOBS

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 October 1946, Page 5

4500 FOUNDRY HANDS MAY LOSE JOBS

Recd. 6 p’.m. Sydney, Oct. 3. About 80 foundries in Sydney and Newcastle will be closed on October 18 unless long-standing strikes in foundry sections of three major engineering works are settled. If striking moulders, ironworkers and crane drivers in these works still refuse to return to work, 4500 foundry workers will receive a week's notice on October 11.

The terms of a settlement suggested by the employers and recommended by the State executive of the union have been rejected by the men. A strike at the Morts dock foundry began on May 8 and came before Mr. Justice O’Mara, of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, on July 5. He ruled that the men’s demands for increased wages, followed by their withdrawal from employment under a common understanding, constituted a breach of the national security regulations. In dealing with the other two strikes on July 29, he ruled that the men had conspired to force employers to make an illegal payment.

The action of the men in resigning after their employers had refused the demands had been referred to as “sniping.”