"NO GUTS, SO NO GAS"

Chronicle (Levin), 11 January 1947, Page 5

"NO GUTS, SO NO GAS"

Press Assn.-

Bitter Attack On Premier

3y Telegraph

■Copyright

Received Friday, 7.40 p.m. SYDNEY, Jan. 10. Two-thirds of Sydney was suddenly deprived of gas last niglif oecause of tlie decision by 100 shift workers at tlie • GoveriimentcontroMed Mo-rtlake gasworks to strike again. Supplies failed in o0J,0u0 nomes. Rationing kas been nastily reintrodnced to conserve . he supplies of gas issued by the ALaniy and No-rth Shore eompanies which serve the remainder of ihe' residents of Sydney and. suburbs. Yesterday's decision took itnion officials. completely by surprise and a mass meeting of 2000 gasworkers on Monday decided against immediate .strike action. Tratles Ilall officials say that the strike action was a coup engioeereti by the Uommunist element in th.e union. Premier MeKoll stated that he has arranged to meet the uniou repri'sentatives today. An ohiciai uomi-nated by the strikers said that their view was that the Government had not yet honoured its promise to have the men's claims iiiscussi'd. The police are standlitg by to maintain law and order >n the gasworks. In ti bitter leading artiele headed : "No (iuts, So No Gas," the Sydney Daily Telegraph says. "To bktme the gasmen, transport workers, butchers and dairy men is all very \yell. bht it gets you nowhere. It is the fault of McKell. Th.is leader of the State, this prospect ve Govelnor General, this statesmau! What is he doing? Jnst whai he has done in every crisis the State has faced — keeping his mouth shut and his hands behind his baek. Iie, commands every power oL' the law. There is nothing he could order for the purpose of maintaining the public services which the peopie would tiot obey and endorse. But he hasn't Ihe conrage to give the order. " The gas dispute, which has led to strikes in three States, developed on November 30 when members oL' the Gas Employees' Union ,bapt]p,d o.vertinye and weekend work. Strikes in Sydney, Welbourn c and Adelaide began on Deeember 12 and six days later the Sydney strikers suceeeded in closing the Wortlake works down. The strikes continued in Melbourne and Adelaide but following the appointment of a State adminisIrator and other agreements the Sydney gasworkers commenced work again on December 21. A move to end the retaii butchers' strike in Sydney and Newcastle has been made by Mr. 'Ghifiey who has asked the chai-r-man of the .Meat P>oard (Mr. J. L. Shute) to discuss the dispute with his colleagues. The South Coast butchers intend to i'ollow the lead of the city butchers if the dispute is not settled b-y iMonday. So far little else has been done towards finding a way out. Thc butchers »/at?e to fipjcl a maxs tneeting toYt^hU 4?p^:%diky| fo: Gihibihninc' future action. A decision on the request by the milk vendors for a liigber price is expected to be given on Monday according 1-o an announcement by Mr. Ghifiey., He said he had received a Yeport of 4he eonsultations betwcen an official of the Federal Treasury and the consumei's' representativc on the Milk Board. The report had been xent on to the Prices Commissioncr -with a retjuest for early action. Milk suppliers have "been threatening for -some weeks to withhold supplies in the Sydney and Neweastle areas but have not yet fixed the datc for action. The railway, bus and tram employees are all threatening strike action, but the New South "Wales railwaymen are not yet prepared to pledge support to the tram and bus workers. When delegate's I'rorn the Tram and Bus Employees Union asked for support i n tlieir • stopwork meeting on •January 20 it was made clear that the two most powerful unions in Ihe group, the Australian Rai.1ways Union and the Road Transport Workers Union, wrere not prepared to make a decision. A.t a stopwork meeting a reeommend ation will be made that the strike should continue indefinitely until Ihe men's demands are met