STRIKE SPREADS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1067, 3 September 1930, Page 9

STRIKE SPREADS

SEAMEN AT MELBOURNE WANT STOPPAGE BOYCOTT PLAN ON PRODUCE MELBOURNE, Tuesday. The dispute at Port Adelaide, arising out of the action of the shipowners in insisting upon employing men who volunteered for work at the time of the last waterside workers’ strike, has spread to Melbourne. The seamen here contend that the shipowners have refused to recognise their rights and rectify their grievances. The Seamen’s Union has asked the Waterside Workers’ Federation to join it in a general maritime strike for the redress of their combined grievances. It was suggested by the seamen that wheat and wool shipments should not be allowed to leave Australia. However, the executive of the Waterside Workers’ Federation discountenances a general strike and has asked the Premier of Victoria, Mr. E. J. Hogan, for a round-table conference to deal with the trouble. The Waterside Workers’ Federation today definitely rejected the general strike proposal made by the seamen. Its members, however, have been instructed not to work with nonunionists. Efforts are to be made to induce the South Australian Government to mediate on behalf of fellow unionists in that State. Police protection was afforded to free labourers on the South Melbourne wharves today in order to prevent a repetition of yesterday’s rioting. It had the desired effect and work on all vessels proceeded smoothly. POLICE STONED Reed. 1 p.m. ADELAIDE, Today. The police, while escorting a woolladen lorry from Port Broughton, were surrounded by a crowd, who stoned the constables when they attempted to disperse the men. A policeman fired a revolver, whereupon the crowd disappeared. The only seamen who have given notice thus far belong to ships trading on the South Australian Coast. SHEARERS CLOSE DOWN Reed.l.4o p.m. PERTH, Today. Nearly 400 members of the Australian Workers’ Union are refusing work in the shearing sheds under the new award, and 30 sheds employing 380 men have finished. Pastoralists will struggle along on the other stations with the aid of their. own staffs, and with men from farming districts and shearers from South Australia. A complaint is made that men are leaving Perth to fulfil shearing engagements, subject to intimidation by the advocates of disobedience of the new award.