DISPUTE SETTLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 72, 27 March 1937, Page 11

DISPUTE SETTLED.

OTAHUHU BOILERMAKERS.

STAFFING ON MACHINES.

A settlement has been reached in the dispute between the boilermakers at the Otahuhu railway workshops and the Department concerning the staffing of jobs. A Departmental instruction "that certain work was to be done by workers classified as laboifrers was cancelled, and the boilermakers were restored to their jobs before work stopped for the Easter holidays.

When proposing the toast of the Department at a social gathering of railwaymen last Saturday, Mr. J. Elliott, workshops representative on the executive council of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, referred to the disagreement. He urged th?.t the men take no precipitate action.

Statements on behalf of the boilermakers were to the effect that the Departmental management proposed to utilise on machines and plant men who were not classified as boilermakers. The tradesmen resented this and contended that the position created would be a breach of craft observance and tantamount to an infringement of the union standards of classifying workers. The boilermakers abandoned a proposal to hold stop-work meetings on Monday and Tuesday on the understanding that the issues in dispute would be reviewed. Instructions were later given for the employment on the machines and other plant of workers classified as boilermakers.