With unemployment rife and the lesson of the wharf labourers strike fresh in their minds, the timber: workers of Sydney and Melbourne have refused to work the 48-hour week as demanded by the Arbitration Court, and have therefore automatically dismissed themselves. Over 5,000 men are affected in Melbourne and an equal number.in Sydney. Strike picketting has been the fashion, and now the employers. have decided to use volunteer labour.
The Timber Union wish all material to be declared black and the Aus-ian Workers Union refuses at the moment to have anything to do. with the strike, owing to the timber opposing the.
The Federal Attorney General Mr Latham intends prosecuting the valen and also the leading spirits the strike.
In the coal industry in New South Wales—prineipally. at Newcastle—almost a replica of the! timber trouble is taking place. The socialistic leaders in Australia are! furiously attacking the unions concerned on what they term a suicidal policy, inasmuch as the large numbers of unemployed do not give the unions a chance to win, volunteer labour being too easily obtained.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.