NEGOTIATIONS WITH LOCO. MEN

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 104, 1 May 1920, Page 7

NEGOTIATIONS WITH LOCO. MEN

AN UNREASONABLE PROPOSAL A. S. R. S. MEN RESUME DUTY ENDORSED BY TRANSPORT FEDERATION

(Ily Trlegraph.—.Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, Friday. Following a further conference with the Locomotive representatives to-night, Mr. Massey stated:—"l was in hopes of being able to run trains to-day, as the Locomotive Association had agreed to the same principles of settlement of the dispute as the Amalgamated Society, but they asked for an important concession which I was unable to grant, and negotiations are either suspended or broken off. In the case of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and tfre First Division men we reached complete agreement. With the Locomotive men we have not been able to agree. We agreed on every point but one. There are proposals to which one cannot agree, and this, in my opinion, is one of them. The proposal of the Locomotive men on which we disagreed was, in my opinion, unreasonable, and, as head of the Government, I could not agree to it." Asked whether he proposed to take steps to get the trains running, the Prime Minister said that he had no remark to make, except to say that the country could not be held up indefinitely. So, also, with regard to the continuance of the Royal tour by train, this was a matter still to be considered. There was naturally much speculation, especially in Trade Union circles, over the decision of the Amalgamated Society to resume work before the Locomotive Association had finally signed and sealed its agi-eement made by separate negotiation. Some illumination was provided by a public statement made by the Locomotive Association's executive, and I hear that body went so far as to communicate in writing to the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, in response to its offer to negotiate jointly the frank message: "Hands off our dispute." The question whether it was correct on the part of the Amalgamated railwaymen to resume before the drivers had made a settlement caused many of the former's members some heart searching, but the Amalgamated seems to have taken the precaution of submitting this vital point in Trade Union ethics to members of the Transport Workers' Advisory Board, who justified the Amalgamated action in the eyes of outside labour bodies by passing the following resolution: — "That in view of the communications forwarded by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants to the executive of the Engine-drivers, Firemen and Cleaners' Association on April 29 and replies received from the Locomotive Men'a Association on the same date, this meeting of the Transport Workers' Advisory Board endorses the action of the Amalgamated Society in negotiating for a separate settlement, as we recognise that, in view of the correspondence received from the secretary of the Engine-drivers and Cleaners' Association that they had no other alternative. Further, this meeting of transport workers regrets that the executive of the Enginedrivers, Firemen and Cleaners' Association refused to endorse the request made by the Amalgamated Society for joint action by the two societies to effect a settlement of the railway dispute."