TRAM STRIKE IN MELBOURNE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 112, 24 February 1950, Page 3

TRAM STRIKE IN MELBOURNE

MEN DEMAND MORE WAGES MELBOURNE, Feb. 23. No trams or Government buses are running in the city or suburbs of Melbourne to-day, because of a strike by tramway employees in support of a demand for an increase of £1 a week in the marginal rates' of pay. All services ceased at 5 a.m. with the last all-night trams. Suburban trains are still running, but action by the railwaymen may follow meetings to-day. The decision to strike, suggested by the Communist secretary of the Tramway Union (Mr C. O’Shea), was carried amid cheers, when 2000 tramwaymen met at the Trades Hall. * At a compulsory conference between representatives of the union and the Tramways Board to-day, the Conciliation Commissioner said he vvouJM not intervene. He believed that the men’s demands were unjustified, as evidence showed him that the average tramwayman in Melbourne received £8 19s for a 38-hour week. The men’s demands for an exti* £1 a week would place them on a level above comparable grades in other industries. The Victorian State Cabinet is considei’Tsg whether it will take action under the Essential Services Act, which provides heavy fines for those holding a strike without a secret balot. Melbourne trains were jammed today, and thousands. walked to Work as a result of the tramway strike.