Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 16 November 1948, page 3


Match strike settled

—BUT SUPPLIES SHORT

Melbourne's match strike ended last night when 200 em-ployees of Bryant and May, Richmond, decided to accept settlement terms proposed at a conference last Friday.

Work will resume today, but a full supply of matches will not be avail-able to the public for about three months.

The dispute, which began on Sep-tember 16, has cost the Manufactur-

ing Grocers' Union £2,000 in strike

pay.

One of the settlement terms is that Mr S. Carver, Commonwealth Statis-tician, will examine production figures over a trial period of eight weeks, and decide what is a fair minimum output before piecework rates shall apply.

This is the first time in industrial history that the Commonwealth Statistician has been asked to assist the Court to decide a reasonable pro-duction in an industry.

The strike arose when an award alteration provided for an output of 1,400 gross matches a day. Pre-viously, 1,302 gross was specified.