TRAMWAY APPEALS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1935, Page 12

TRAMWAY APPEALS

DISMISSALS SEQUEL. QUESTION OF SELECTION. PERSONAL FEELING DENIED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. The Christchnrch Tramway Board's reasons for discussing three men who joined its service during the strike in 1D32 were further examined at a sitting of the Tramway Appeal Board to-day. The b aid reserved ite decision. Appellants were William Lewis, Frank George Buckley and Frederick James Mitchell. The Appeal Board consisted of Mr. H. A. Young, S.M., Mr. J. A. Webb, the tinion's representative, and Mr. G. Manning, the Tramway Board's representative. Mr. C. S. Thomas, with Mr. W. F. Tracy, appeared for appellants, and Mr. J. D. Hutchison for the board. Frank Thompson, formerly manager of the tramways, said he warned the board about the surplus of men in February. "My main reason for resigning," he eaid, "was that I knew that the surplus of men was going to be used as an excuse to discharge some of the new men. That has come about; it has started anyhow." The appellants Buckley and Mitchell gave evidence as to their good records in the service. Mr. Hutchison, in opening his case, argued that the Appeal Board had no jurisdiction in the present cases. It was intended only to determine the appeals of men dismissed as to punishment. These men had been dismissed as part of a retrenchment scheme and he eontended the Tramway Board had the right to select which men it could do without. William Dick, traffic manager, said he had selected the men for dismissal. He was instructed to select on seniority. The strike period was not to be considered as a break in the service. As his instructions really put the strikers senior to new men, ho chose three new' men, who, in his opinion, were those whoso services could best be spared.

John Kendrick Archer, chairman of the Tramway Board, said the board's policy'had been simply to keep as many men as possible employed. It was not the policy of the board to build up a surplus, so that new men might be dismissed later. , In cross-examination he said he had no personal feeling against the new men, but his feeling toward the strikebreakers was one of disfavour. Counsel: Have you referred to new men as scabs? Witness: Possibly.