The Tramway Trouble.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16397, 17 December 1918, Page 6

The Tramway Trouble.

The public will not be very pleased to learn from the long and rather confused letter of Mr Hunter, the secretary of the Tramwaymen's Union, that the tramway trouble is about to begin agaiin. The -position is not quite so simple as is the case with most industrial disputes, but' it is not quite so abstruse as Mr Hunter's letter may make it appear.- The men demanded a minimum of Is 4d per hour, with other concessions relative to working hours, and when their request was not granted they inaugurated a "go-slow" strike. The Board dismissed some of the employees for breaches of the regulations, and there ensued a deadlock—the Board: declining to meet the Union in conference until the normal running of the, cars was resumed, and the Union refusing to abandon the "go-slow" policy until the Board had promised to reinstate tho dismissed motormen and to consent to a conference. Just before Carnival Week the deadlock was ended by a mutual agreement that normal ruuning should be resumed forthwith, and that the Board should meet the Union in conference and give favourable consideration to the request that tlfc dismissed motormen should be reinstated. After Carnival Week came the ending of the war and the outbreak of the epidemic, and the public has had no time to think of the tramways trouble. Negotiations, however, have been proceeding, and these, according to Mr Hunter's story, consisted of (1) an olfor by the Board, (2) the Union's rejection of that offer and its submission of other terms, (3) an amended offer by tho Board, and (-1) an ultimatum by the Union. Tho position now is that the Board is prepared to reinstate the dismissed motormen and to .pay them 30s a week for tho period from November 14th to ICtn, but is not pre-

pared to make any alteration in the general scale of pay, except that the increase of 7J per cent, granted early in the dispute will stand. The Union has given the Board one week within which to grant tho demand for the reinstatement of the men at fnll rates, and for the granting of Is 4d per hour as a minimum wage. In his letter to the Board, Mr Hunter does not say what the Union means to do if the Board stands firm, as we expect it will, but there is a hint in his communication that the Union may bring on a strike by arranging that the employees' will simultaneously but individually quit work on a week's notice. Now that they have resumed their offensive, despite the Board's grant of an increase of 7i per cent, in their wages, the men need to b® reminded of some facts which they have allowed thomselves to forget, and which, vve can assure them, weigh far more with the public than the irrelevancies in their letter to the Board. The first fact is that the existing conditions were fixed by an award under the Arbitration Act; and that award is a binding contract which it is both dishonourable and unlawful for either party to break. Many people in rccent years have changed their views on industrial arbitration, and tho labour problem has developed some new aspects, but the binding force of a contract has not altered Many things have happened during tho past five years to harden the dislike of the public for the repudiation of binding engagements or treaties, and the Union will do well to reflect upon this before it seeks to put unlawful pressure on the Board and tho public. As to the rates of pay demanded bv the Union, it is idle to expect the public to believe that the Wellington scale ought to be adopted here. Tho rise in the cost of commodities has been much greater in "Wellington than in Christchurch, and whereas a decent houso can be easily enough had in this city and district at a reasonable rental, the housing difficulty in Wellington is so acute that a great many people have to be content with very inadequate accommodation at a very high rental. There was a very general feeling when the Union made its original demand that the men might reasonably be granted somewhat better wages than those thoy had contracted to work for, and the Board recognised this feeling by granting an increase of 7i per cent. But it is quite another thing to ask tho public to believe that the conditions here call for the Wellington scale, and that the Union is justified in seeking to secure that scale by issuing ultimatums, writing threatening letters, and hinting at an infringement of the law against strikes.