MEETING OF PROTEST

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29992, 29 November 1962, Page 18

MEETING OF PROTEST

Public Servants In Citv a) Christchurch State services employees will meet in the Civic Theatre at 12.15 pun. on Tuesday to protest against the State Services Bill now before Parliament. The president of the Canterbury branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (Mr G. Finlayson), who is chairman of a committee set up to direct local proteste against the bill, said yesterday that there was no intentioin of disrupting the central services to the public for the meeting. It was up to each organisation to make its own arrangement for attendance of members at the meeting, he said. Mr Finlayson said that organisations expected to be represented at the meeting included the Canterbury and Addington branches of the A.S.R.S. the Railway Tradesmen's Association, the Railway Officers’ Institute, the Post Office Association, the New Zealand Workers’ Union, the Public Service Association, and the Postprimary Teachers’ Association. The president of the Canterbury council of the Federation of Labour (Mr F; L. Langley) said that he had telephoned the president of the federation (Mr F. P. Walsh), who had said he would travel from Wellington to address the protest meeting if he possibly could. Mr Finlayson said it was also hoped to get speakers from the national executives of the organisations protesting to address the meeting. Benmore Resolution The executive committee of the Benmore branch of the New Zealand Workers’ Union had protested against the bill, said the South Island secretary of the union (Mr W. A. Dempster) last evening.

Its resolution said: “The workers on this job strongly protest at the Government’s proposal to repeal section 103 of the Railways Tribunal Act, and protests at the State Services Bill, which will deprive all State employees of general wage increases ordered by the Arbitration Court. This executive particularly protests, as Ministry of Works employees consider the. proposed legislation is a direct attack on their notoverpaid fellow workers in the railways.”