NORMAL SERVICE RESTORED.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20550, 19 May 1932, Page 12

NORMAL SERVICE RESTORED.

TRAMWAYMEN BACK AT WORK. APPEAL FOR HARMONY IN WORKING. Tramway, services In Ghristchurcli to-day will be run ' according to the ordinary time-table until 10.20 p.m., and possibly until 11.10 p.m. Many of the strikers were reinstated in their positions yesterday, and the service throughout the day was practically normal. -The night service was continued until 10.20 o'clock on all lines, instead of until 8.20 o'clock on live lines only, as has beon the practice during the past week. In the meantime police precautions against disorder have not been relaxed. Yesterday morning the general manager of tramways (Mr Frank Thompson) and the traffic manager (Mr W. Dick) started on the worn of sorting out from the Union members the first 90 men to be reinstated according to th'e judgment of the chairman of the Strike Tribunal (Mr A. T. Donnelly). Between 40 and 50 of those men were already at work by last night, and probably all the rest will be on the trains to-day. The Union is making recommendations to the Board on behalf of those employees whose long service or many dependents entitle them to some preference in tlie selection. , At the same time the Board has to keep a close watch upon its new workers, for 57 or more of the least efficient of these men —according to Mr Donnelly's ruling—have to be dismissed within seven days. In both selections good progress has been made, but although the normal time-table has been quickly restore,! it will be Bomo time before the permanent staff is properly re-established.

Appeal to Tramwaymen. Mr Thompson yesterday issued an appeal to all tlio tramwaymen to_ forget the dispute and work together in harmony. Failure to do this, ho said, wouid be viewed with the strongest disfavour by the Board. The text of his appeal, which was displayed on several notice-boards, was as follows: — "Now that the strike is over it is essential that complete harmony should exist between all members of the staff. "If those who left their work and have now'been re-employed cherish any feeling of enmity towards those who did not leave their work or towards those new men who have now joined the staff they are required to refrain from indicating their feelings, fhor by word or action, and are required to encourage others to take the sane course. "Those men who did not leave thoir work, and the new men who have recently joined the service, are required to adopt the 'same pacific attitude towards those who went out 011 strike and have now been re-employed. ''The action of any employee who fails to observe the spirit as well as the letter of the above requirement will 1)0 vjowed with the strongest disapproval by the Board." Confidence Restored. 'l'here were no signs of partisanship on the trams yesterday, and the strikers who had been reinstated seemed only too glad to be back at their work. Regular passengers on the different lines were interested in the return of ,the regular conductors and wotormeu, and there was in many, cases some good-humoured chaffing of the men. As for the public, they seemed at once to regain confidence in the , trams, and many more came into the City for an afternoon's shopping than on any day since the strike began. Since the beginning of the strike the Cashmere Hills line has boen Served with motor-buses instead of trams. In the moantime this service is V'ing continued. • Resolutions expressing admiration of the "clean light" put up by the tramwaymen and condemning the Government for permitting the Board to employ uncertificated drivers were passed bv the Amalgamated Engineering and Allied' Trades Union. The text of the first resolution was: — "That this union places on record its admiration of the clean light put up by the tramwaymen in their endeavour to .frustrate the vindictiveness of the .Tramway Board, and calls on all its members to maintain their moral support to the men by curtailing their use of the trams until such time as the original staff is reinstated."