Unions Say Recruit More

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31412, 4 July 1967, Page 1

Unions Say Recruit More

fN.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 3. A decision by the Railways Department to take on 50 men for the Otahuhu workshops under the Government’s winter relief programme is looked upon by the two major unions in the shops as a stopgap measure.

Mr C. Duffy, branch secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, said tonight that there was work for up to 100 men. The 50 men would relieve the situation, he said. Instead iff being taken on as relief, the men should be taken on permanently. In a statement his committee and that of the Railways Tradesmen’s Association claim that the present policy of the department is unrealistic and that senior railway officials are not allowed to take on any labourers or

skilled labourers over 30 and tradesmen over 40. Work On Waggons

Yet, says the statement, there is about £1 million worth of crated waggons from Japan waiting for assembly, 1000 waggons waiting for repair, and work for carpenters on roof and building repairs.

The unions claim that the number of men employed at Otahuhu has decreased from about 2000 at one time to 1063 today. “Throughout the years the unions have always heard the cry from management that if labour was only available, this or that could be done," the statement says. “The labour is available but nothing is being done.

“A new situation has arisen regarding employing men under a winter seasonal scheme of three months’ duration which is not acceptable to the unions because the Labour Department and the Social Security Department are subsidising the pay of the men employed.

“This, in our opinion, is purely relief when these men could be gainfully employed under the normal conditions of regular workers instead of under the stigma of relief." Mr W. A. Hudson, the district mechanical engineer for the railways at Auckland, said that more men than usual were being taken on this year. They were mainly seasonal workers and were unskilled. $

They were being paid at ordinary railway rates. The assembly of the Japanese waggons and the waggon repair work was being carried out to a programme, he said. Waggon repairing was a job for skilled tradesmen, and this type of man was not available, he said. He did not foresee any extra carpenters being taken on.