A SHIPS TIED UP

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 83, 5 October 1938, Page 14

A SHIPS TIED UP

WORKERS RETRENCHED

AUSTRALIAN COAL STRIKE

PARTIES CONFER

Baited Press Association—By Electric Tele-

. graph—Copyright. (Received October 5, 11.30 a.m.)

SYDNEY, This Day. •

The inter-State steamers Kooyong and Ena and the trans-Tasman freighter Waiotapu have been added to the fleet of (idle ships in Sydney Harbour. About 1000 men employed at the Port Kembla works of Australian Iron and Steel, Ltd., have been retrenched because of the strike, and other dismissals are likely. , Efforts to end the coal strike began yesterday, when a conference of the parties was convened by the Minister o! Labour (Mr. Mair) at his office and discussed the dispute from all angles. The Minister conferred privately with representatives of the miners and the colliery proprietors and a roundtable talk ensued without reaching a settlement. The conference was adjourned until, tomorrow. POSITION DELICATE. The miners' representatives held a special meeting last evening to determine how far they could go towards a settlement as a result of the discussions with owners earlier in the day. The outcome of the meeting was to be communicated to the Minister of I Labour this morning. j

The position is regarded as delicate in view of,the recent judgment of Mr. Justice Cantor, who held that the miners were not justified in advancing new claims while they were already bound by the existing award, which the owners insist should be observed.