NEW TRAMWAY CONDITIONS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25309, 8 October 1947, Page 6

NEW TRAMWAY CONDITIONS

GOVERNMENT ASKED TO INTERVENE

DEPUTATION FROM UNION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 7. A request to the Government that it take steps to ensure the enforcement of decisions of the national tramways industry tribunal was placed before the Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser) and the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagan) this afternoon by a joint deputation from the New Zealand Tramway Employees’ Union, the New Zealand Federation of Labour, and the New Zealand Transport Workers’ Federation.

No statement was made either by the Government or by union officials after the meeting. The union decided earlier this week that stop-work meetings of tramwaymen in all centres would be called if the Wellington City Council did not give an assurance by to-morrow evening that it would operate in full the decision of the National Tramways’ Industrial Tribunal The validity of the decisions made by the chairman of the tribunal are to be tested by the Wellington City Council, which proposes to go to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the legal authority for the decisions.

BRANCH PRESIDENT RESIGNS

RESULT OF DECISION “BY MINORITY”

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 7. Announcing his resignation from the presidency of the Wellington branch of the Tramways Union, Mr G. N. Amos said to-day that the inclusion by the Tramways Industrial Tribunal of Sunday in the five-day week operating in Wellington hit at the policy of the union.

Before the local hearing of the tribunal in Wellington it was a unanimous instruction from the management committee of the Wellington branch that the exclusion of Sunday from the five-day week should be the policy. Because this policy was not upheld by a minority meeting of the Wellington branch, he felt he had no option but to resign.

Mr Amos said the present trouble which had developed over the national agreement could have been settled satisfactorily had the Wellington Sunday been left as it was. There was substantial support for the policy, and he was sure it still existed.

UNION SUPPORTED BY DUNEDIN BRANCH

(P.A.) DUNEDIN, October 7. “Tramwaymen in Dunedin are in accord with the action taken in Wellington by the national executive,” said the vice-president of the Dunedin branch of the Tramways Union (Mr A. E. Scoones) to-day. “Any further action taken will be on a national basis. Dunedin men feel very strongly on this matter. They have been very patient, considering that the local award expired 15 months ago.” Mr Scoones said tramwaymen throughout New Zealand were morally bound to accept the decision of the tribunal, and they expected employers to do the same.