The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1924. THE STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 95, 22 April 1924, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1924. THE STRIKE.

For the cause that lack* e#*i»fane#, For the wrong that need* resistance, For the future in the dittance, And the good that v* can do.

The largest of the unions of railwaymen has declared a 6trike, and the failway service" is paralysed. What are the reasons 6f the strike? Negotiations that began • in February' last 'were' on Saturday at a hopeful stage. One Wages Board had been a failure, but the executive of the A.S.R.S. suggested another, and the Government was agreeable. The great difficulty of procedure had been surmounted, ior after having insisted that the wage queetion should be paramount, the executive agreed that all matters in dispute should be considered. Everything seemed to point to a settlement. Then suddenly there came an ultimatum from the executive that unless an increase in wages was granted immediately the men, who had already voted for a strike, would be called out. The ostensible reasons for this change of front are that the executive did not agree with the Government about the choice of a chairman, and that the Government would not guarantee that the Board would sit immediately. These reasons are feeble. Does the executive of the A.S.R.S. ask the public to believe that the choice of a chairman, and the question whether the Board should meet to-day, or in two or three days' time, are sufficient justification for a strike that puts the whole community to grave inconvenience and loss? Incidentally,"we may point out that the magistrate suggested as chairman by the executive is busy with a report of public importance which musl be ready by a certain date. Why did the executive suddenly swing* round from peace to war?. Was any outside pressure brought to bear upon it? Apparently the strikers, backed by the Labour party, will make every effort to put the issues of wages and hours in the forefront of their defence, and little or nothing will be said about the actual rupture of negotiations. The public will not be deceived. The railwaymen had the sympathy of the public in asking for higher wages. It is one thing, however, for the average man to sympathise with a worker who gets a wage of less than £4 a week, and another thing for him to support a strike which is declared when arrangements are being made for a fresh inquiry into this worker's grievances, and which has no better immediate justification than the choice of a chairman and the date of the opening of proceedings. We are not suggesting that the Government has been wise in its handling of the business. Indeed, it ig possible that if a little more tact and consideration had been shown the rupture might not have occurred. The signs of serious trouble brewing have been manifest for a very long time past, j and these were treated in a dilatory! fashion. Still, the fact remains that the j Government did set up the appeal board which the A.S.R.S. ask pA for, and when ' that failed was prepared to refer the whole case to another Wages Board, so that the questions at issue might be dealt with judicially. ■ In first accepting j this proposal, and then suddenly resort- i ing to. militant strike methods, the j Iterative of the union has put itself |

out of court. It cannot plead' justifica- ! tion by reason of low wages and bad conditions, for a few hours before it ; gave *he order to strike it was prepared to submit its case to a new Wages Board. It may have other reasons for so acting, but on its own Rowing only the questions Of the chairmanship and the date of the 'inquiry stood between itself j and peace. The public is also not unI mindful of the fact that the strikers , are Civil Servants, who as such enjoy certain privileges which other workers do not enjoy. They have security of work and a superannuation system, and they can appeal to Parliament in a way that is denied to other classes. The Labour party has whole-heartedly taken up the cause of the strikers. It is to the credit of its leader that before the strike he offered his services as mediator, and while Mr. Massey could not shed the Government's responsibility he might have replied more sympathetically to Mr. Holland's offer. But to support a strike like this is a very serious responsibility, and if the Labour party ever reaches office it may find its record in this respect rising to haunt it. Is the party committed to the doctrine that a strike in a public service is justified in the face of an opportunity to present the dispute to a tribunal? What attitude would it take up if a similar situation arose when it was the Government. Mr. Holland and his colleagues may be reminded of the warning that Mr. J. H. Thomas, now Secretary for the Colonies, addressed to his party long before it reached office. Mr. Thomas told Labour that in shaping its conduct it should bear in mind the possibility that some day it would be responsible for the Government of the country. To encourage anti-social acts in Opposition would weaken its influence as a Government. We hope that Labour here will take the wiser course of trying to find a way out of the strike. Neither the men nor the Department, nor the public, can afford this unjustifiable stoppage of a public utjlity. By striking the men have actually made it more difficult for the Department, which is only now reaching the paying'point after a period of serious deficits, to pay the wages they demand.