Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 107
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[Page 107]
(3.)
the dogs as they always have been previously, when the strikers returned to work with the familiar stipulation that there should be "no victimisation". You know what that means – that every striker should be taken back again, & no examples made of the ringleaders. Well, the Government gave fair warning to all those on strike that those taken on to fill the vacancies would be kept on. Gradually the decent men among the strikers came back to work, & heaps of new men were taken on until today there are about 600 trams running in Sydney daily, & a very fair railway service all over the State. Now of course it is apparent that thousands of strikers will never get their jobs back, & every day more new men are being taken on. For the first time in their lives the ringleaders of all the Labour troubles in Australia are up against a Government which will not yield an inch. The result is that all other industries are being paralysed. The Coal miners all over the State struck. The Government took over the mines, called for free labour, & are now working nine mines, & will work more directly. The wharf labourers are out, & the Government has got 5000 free labourers in camp at the Sydney Cricket Ground, & they work every day on the wharves under police protection, &