A.S.R.S. Men Decide To Work To Rules

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 14

A.S.R.S. Men Decide To Work To Rules

The decision by the 1000 members of the Canterbury branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in Christchurch yesterday to work strictly to the rules could slow railway movements in the South Island. It could also have repercussions in transportation of goods in the North Island.

The cause of the “work-to-rule,” said a resolution adopted by yesterday’s meeting of the branch, was the repeated refusal of the Railways’ Department and the Government, to amend a railways regulation to enable rehabilitation of railway personnel guilty of a breach of the regulations.

The meeting considered it was both unfair and inconsistent for the Railways Department to start a scheme to rehabilitate Borstal youths between the ages of 16 and 20 at Waipiata, and at the same time to refuse to rehabilitate an A.S.R.S. member. The “work-to-rule,” which begins in Christchurch at 4 p.m. today, is expected to: (1) Delay goods trains in the South Island by up to eight or nine hours, with slightly less delay in the North Island.

(2) Delay passenger expresses in the South Island by half an hour to one hour. (3) Affect train running generally. (4) Affect the handling of goods.

(5), Affect the operation of the port of Lyttelton.

Passenger trains are expected to be affected, but generally not as much as goods trains. The “work-to-rule" is scheduled to begin at the 4 p.m. change-over shift. “This will be an interesting try-out,” said a union leader last evening.

“Everything will be done strictly to the book. It eould become like the ‘work-to-rule’ during the postal strike in Great Britain about two years ago."

Yesterday’s meeting in the Carlyle street hall decided that all members be instructed to work strictly to the traffic code and railway regulations. “If the department wants the regulations obeyed, we will obey them strictly,” he said. “If everyone does everything strictly by the

book, it will slow everything down to a crawl,” said the union leader.

The Railways Department is understood to have made an agreement with the A.S.R.S. about two weeks ago to employ prison labour. The Canterbury branch does not oppose the rehabilitation of Borstal youths in the railways. But it considers that if prison labour is to be employed, the railway staff regulations should be amended to allow A.S.R.S. members, who

have “fallen by the wayside,’’ also to have the opportunity of being rehabilitated. “We are not against rehabilitation in Otago as long as railway conditions are observed,” said one railway union official. He said this did not mean that the Canterbury branch of the A.S.R.S. condoned stealing.

“We are not trying to condone that,” he said. “The average railwayman would not stand for it.”