Negotiating On Dispute

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 3

Negotiating On Dispute

(From Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, Dec. 4. Railways Department officials and representatives of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants will meet in Wellington on Tuesday morning to negotiate on the issue which out 11 drivers and four mechanics in the Road Services depot in Greymouth on strike. The strike ended at 11.15 on Friday night and A.S.R.S. officials manning three telephones worked until 3 a.m. to inform those concerned of the

decision to return to work, pending top-level talks.

“Most of our drivers were asleep when we rang,” said a union official, “but they didn't mind in that they could go back to work.” Following the arrival of the road services councillor of the A.S.R.S. (Mr P. Cranston) in Greymouth on Friday afternoon, further negotiations with the General Manager of Railways (Mr I. Thomas) continued until shortly before midnight, when the department agreed to the reinstatement of a mechanic pending further negotiations. The mechanic concerned had been told he had to transfer because he was surplus to the Greymouth depot’s requirements. Mr Cranston said that from i his investigations, the mechanic could be gainfully em-

ployed in the depot. On Tuesday, discussions will begin between the A.S.R.S. national council and the department on the position. The A.S.R.S. executive will be joined by the Greymouth branch secretary, Mr A. J. Leckie, and the assistant secretary, Mr J. F. McDowell.

After a full meeting of A.S.R.S. members on Saturday, Mr Leckie said that the members had “unanimously passed ’ vote of confidence in the branch executive in the manner in which they handled the dispute.”