TRAMS ON RACE DAYS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24800, 14 February 1946, Page 4

TRAMS ON RACE DAYS

UNION’S DECISION ON LAST TRIPS

Christchurch tramway employees have informed three racing and trotting clubs that they do not intend to keep trams at the Riccarton and Addington racecourses later than 4 p.m. on race days unless agreements made with the clubs for earlier finishing times for race meetings are adhered to. The secretary of the employees’ union, Mr N. R. Forbes, has notified the Christchurch Tramway Board of this decision. In a letter to the two trotting clubs, Mr Forbes said that some time ago. after negotiations with the union, the clubs had agreed to try to have the last race at Addington meetings run by about 4 p.m. That arrangement had apparently been lost sight of, and the advertised starting time for the last race at the Canterbury Park Trotting Club’s meeting on February 9 was 4.42 p.m. Negotiations with the Canterbury Jockey Club had ended in a similar agreement, Mr Forbes said, but the advertised starting time for the last race at the club’s meeting at Riccarton on February 2 had been 4.27 p.m. The union felt that when most sections of the community were enjoying a fiveday 40-hour week there was no valid reason why starting times for race meetings should be later than 11 a.m. and finishing times later than 4 p.m. The union’s letter to the Tramway Board said that- racing and trotting clubs were not honouring agreements reached after conferences of representatives of the board, the clubs, and the union. The employees generally, it continued, were determined that some effort must be made to have the finishing times advanced so that the men could be free in the evenings.