Split In Drivers’ Union On Strike

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 1

Split In Drivers’ Union On Strike

A motion of no confidence in the officers of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union would be moved at a special meeting of the union called for next Wednesday evening, said the union’s retiring secretary (Mr A. S. Roberts) yesterday.

The motion, he said, would be moved by Mr G. F. Searle, an executive member. Mr Roberts said the motion related to the handling of the Railway Tradesmen’s Association’s 10-day strike, as directed by the decision of the New Zealand Drivers’ Federation’s annual conference and the Federation of Labour. During th e strike, about 200 road-transport drivers, representing 430 drivers, at a lunch-time meeting, unanimously adopted a resolution that they would carry essential goods, or any other kind of goods, from 1 p.m. that day.

The meeting was organised by disgruntled drivers, and not by the Canterbury Drivers’ Union. Later that afternoon, the president of the union (Mr H. Hornbrook) said that the union had considered the resolution, and in the circumstances all members of the union would be permitted to carry whatever

goods necessary in the South Island from 1 p.m. that day. The special meeting next Wednesday is expected to be one of the biggest union meetings in the Trades Hall for some time. Mr Searle has been an executive member for four years. He has been an unsuccessful candidate for the positions of president, secretary, and organiser of the union in the last few months.

Another motion to be heard at the special meeting, said Mr Roberts, would allege the condoning of irregularities by union officers in the ballots for secretary and president. A Labour Department official was the returning officer in the election of president, and the president of the Canterbury district council of the Federation of Labour (Mr R. A; Hill) was the returning officer in the election of secretary. The position of union organiser was filled by appointment by the union’s executive committee.