MINISTER FIRM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 23, 7 November 1940, Page 5

MINISTER FIRM.

RAILWAY WORKS DISPUTE. NO INTERFERENCE IN MATTER MR SEMPLE'S TELEGRAM.; (Per Press Association). CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. That- ho has not intention of interfering in the dispute, between’ the men. omployed on the South Island Main. Trunk Railway and the executive of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, was made perfectly clear by the Hon. R. Semple to-day, in reply to a telegi*am which he Iras received., reading: “A ma ss meeting of men- locked out -on the Main Trunk request your presence aud AL* R. Eddys on the job at your earliest convenience.” Air Semple telegraphed 1 saying “It is not my intention, to comply with vour request "as I have nothing to" diseyss with tire men alleged to he locked cut. Ever since I have been Alinister of 'Public Works' ■ I have 1 complied faithfully With every principle iir the Public Works workers’ Agreement, it is the men who have broken the agreement. They have used the -pßeference clause when it suited them and now they wish to ignore it because of a domestic quarrel with the Union, I have never interferred with the running of the Union. That- is their job, not" mine, but 1 am determined that this agreement shall net be violated over disputes that are not governed by the terms of the agreement. “My advice to the men is to comply with the terms of. their. 1 agreement, return to work forthwith and settle,their Union difficulties in . a constitutional manner. 'Tliere is lio use. communicating with jute' a,ny' further.. I. any determined to (stick' to the agreement, thi,Terms of which are entirely in favour.of the men as the preference clause was. inserted at their own request to protect them against non-Union labour. It is amazing that this clause should- now be used to destroy the principle.; . for which it was created.,

“Ary Government is carrying on this job under considerable difficulty during the war period. At the moment we are fighting' for oiir'existence, . with the enemy at our very gates, and the public and the Government arc in no mood to tolerate the holding up of large Public Works’ jobs on issues that bear no relationship to the urgency for speeding up its completion.”