QUEENSLAND STRIKERS HOODWINKED BY THE COMMUNISTS

Grey River Argus, 8 April 1948, Page 6

QUEENSLAND STRIKERS HOODWINKED BY THE COMMUNISTS

Resuming On Old Terms SYDNEY, April 7. The Brisbane correspondent of the Sydney “Morning Herald” states: The Queensland railway strikers will return to work on the same wages and conditions as before the dispute began. They must now apply to the .Industrial Court for increases of 16s for skilled tradesmen, 13s for semiskilled men, and 7s for labourers, which they were seeking beiore February 2. “They have been told by the Government that it will not oppose in the Court increases of 12s 4d, 9s and 7s for these classes. The higher rate of 12s 4d had been promised by the Government as long ago as December 16, six weeks before the strike began, but the men were never informed of the promise. “The Communist-dominated disputes committee then advised the men to strike, for the first the rank and file knew of the offer was when a fascimile of the letter containing the original offer was published in a Brisbane paper on March 4.” “The Communists .hoping to save face after their humiliating defeat in the Queensland strike, are trying to suggest that wage increases were gained by the strike,” says the Brisbane correspondent of the Sydney “Morning Herald.” “This is not true. The facts speak for themselves, and reveal a deliberate attempt by the Communists to hoodwink the strikers. In Newcastle, members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union employed at Broken Hill Proprietary and Lysaghts, have demanded the resignation as a member of the union’s Federal council of E. J. Rowe, the member of the central committee of the Communist Party, who on March 25 was lined £6O and ordered to be kept in gaol until further orders after he had been found guilty of gross contempt in interfering with a ballot conducted by the Queensland Industrial Court. Rowe has paid the fine. It is now open forr rhrim to apologise to the Court and submit that he has purged his contempt. Rowe disappeared after the sentence was announced, but was arrested an dimprisoned later.