WOMEN AS BUS DRIVERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 12

WOMEN AS BUS DRIVERS

ISSUE IN DUNEDIN UNION MEN OPPOSED TO INNOVATION (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 26. Women conductors among the members of the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Tramways Union are asking to be trained as trolley-bus drivers ahead of men with less seniority. A tramwayman said today that the matter had been discussed by the branch, without decision. The union, he said, accepted - the principle of seniority for women equally with men, and women had claimed that this equality should allow them to be trained as trolley-bus drivers and omnibus drivers in their turn of seniority. The men, however, viewed with concern the prospect of any woman being entrusted with a heavy vehicle and the carriage of passengers. If the question came to the test, he said, it would probably be determined by the City Council, which would probably decide that the women were not necessary as bus drivers and might dismiss them if the issue were forced by the women. In that event, he said, the union could take an interest in the welfare of its women members.