NEW AUSTRAEIAN STRIKE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 November 1920, Page 1

NEW AUSTRAEIAN STRIKE

PUBLIC SERVANTS AND PRIME MINISTER, SYDNEY, Nov. 9. A most remarkable kind of strike, is in progress at the present time. The public servants employed by the Federal Government are of opinion that they are grossly underpaid. They certainly appear to be. Many of them are receiving £4 per week and Jess, while the basic wage in New South Wales—that is, the minimum which any employer may pay any adult.worker —is £4 os per week. There, was much talk of a strike recently, when the Federal Government declined to afford any relief, but finally it was decided to adopt a method other than that of ceasing work.

So now, all day, the Prime Minister, and in a lesser degree, the members of his Cabinet and the members of the Federal Parliament are being bombarded, with letters and telegrams urging, demanding, and pleading for an increase in salaries. The effort has been well organised, and thus far lias succeeded in its immediate' object—namely, the extreme embarrassment of the post and telegraphic services with excessive traffic.

Here in Sydney, every day, the mails and the telegraph offices are being flooded with letters and telegrams for Mr Hughes. The public servants are paying; the cost themselves, but it is not ar, big an expenditure as might at first appear. It has been so arranged that certain public servants post one letter or lodge one telegram on certain days, and at the busiest hours.

To-day, for instance, in the middle of the day, hundreds and hundreds of public servants called at the main telegraph office and lodged a telegram for M> Hughes, paying in each case the new charge of Is 4d. Fully one hundred of them sent just this: “Do unto others as you did to yourselves. Give us more pay.”

But generally the messages were different. Here are a few samples: “Returned soldiers receive less than labourers. Why?” “Wake up, Billy, and do your duty.” “Everything rising except Federal servants’ wage’s.” “No clothes, no money, holes in socks and boots.” “Throw v out the life-line, Billy.” “No holiday for three years. Behind with rent. Dinkum!” . “Aus-sie-troops best paid in war and worst paid hire.” “No basic wage, no vote next election.” The result of this operation is that half the operators must work overtime at night to clean up the huge accumulation of wires. The extra thousands ov letters being posted may not embarrass the mail-rooms, but they will require a staff of clerks to handle the mail in the Prime Minister’s office. It is a clever idea, and is being well managed and carried out \ and in the opinion of those who know, it will be successful. ..... Mv . tVV ..,,„ "