COMPLETE SHIPPING TIE-UP THREATENED

Chronicle (Levin), 10 May 1946, Page 5

COMPLETE SHIPPING TIE-UP THREATENED

DISPCTE OVER DOVBLE BALES OF WOOL Received Thursdav, 7 p.m. HYDNEY, May 9. Xearly forty vessels and 31)00 waterside workers are now involved in the double dumpiTjg of wool dispute whicli threatens to tie up the whole of Australia's shipping. Five ports are seriously affected and many of the ships hnmobilised are carrying food for Britain and the Gontinent. Sixty-thou-sand cases of fruit in tlie ships at Hyuuey and Brisbaue may have to be itumped. The daily cust to the sliipowners is about £16,000 in harbour fees and niaintenance expenses alone. At Geelong yesterday the port authoi'ities severed th.e lashings of double dumped bales to be loaded into overseas ships and the walersiders went back to work. The most recent decision of the Stevedoring Connnission was that tlie inen would not be required to lift double dumped bales as single bales would be used for topping and shoring the cargo. The shipowners point out that though used primarily to couserve spaee, tlie i wartime practice of compressing and j binding tiro bales of wool together has j been practised in the.- AustraliaiFtrade ( for more "than half a eentury. The first ; | complaint was made by the watersiders 1 j in October, 1945. About 4,500,000 doulfle : i dumped bales are in storage tliroughout ! Australia waiting shipment and the; coiuing clip is estimated at another ; i 3,000,000 bales, tonnage for whicli niust ^ ! be provided urgently. Toniglit all other ships in Nfewcastle ! will be tied up at nine o'clock as a protest against the double dumping of wool, but the watersiders on colliers will eontinue to work in an elTort to | keep Sydney's light and power services fiinctioning.