West Coast Railway Dispute Settled

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32011, 11 June 1969, Page 1

West Coast Railway Dispute Settled

(From Our Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH, June 10.

The West Coast railway dispute had ended, the secretary of the Greymouth branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (Mr A. J. Leckie) said after an executive meeting tonight.

The Railways Department had agreed to run “single-headed” locomotives for 24 hours until the union’s case was either proved or disproved, he said.

The dispute, which began on Monday, halted all West Coast rail traffic after the union objected to the use of multiple locomotives, particularly on sidings which, it considered, did not meet with safety requirements. Mr Leckie, asked when the first trains would run, said that was over to the department.

He said that union members who had given the executive a vote of confidence in its handling of the dispute had been criticised about the lack of rail-car services. But the stoppage of these had not been the result of union action.

Five signalmen had been suspended for refusing to handle the multiple locomotives.

The District Traffic Manager of Railways in Canterbury (Mr A. D. Campbell) will arrive in Greymouth today for further discussions with the union. NO RAIL-CAR

The 1.50 a.m. rail-car service from Christchurch to the West Coast will be cancelled tomorrow morning. This morning it went only to Greymouth, and passengers and freight were transferred to buses to continue to Ross. All other goods and passenger rail services out of Greymouth were cancelled. The Liverpool State mine was idle as a result, the only access to it being by rail. “We are very pleased that the agreement has been reached as we don’t like to see these disturbances in any shape or form,” said Mr Campbell. “We are hopeful that this will be a permanent settlement of the question,” he said.

Mr Campbell said late tonight that trains had begun running from Westport and Stillwater and two train crews were going from Greymouth to Otira to begin running trains from there. He said trains would run normally on the Rewanui branch line which takes miners to the Liverpool Mine.

The rail-car was due to leave Greymouth at 6.30 tomorrow morning for Ross and then Christchurch, and the rail-car service would then be

back to normal, said Mr Campbell. Mr Leckie said there was no suggestion that the society was demanding two guards for multiple trains, or that this was the issue involved. “RUNAWAY” TRAIN The situation, he said, stemmed from a “runaway” at' Jacksons in 1963. Because of the length of the siding there, half a train had run away and had reached an estimated 80 miles an hour before crashing at the Moana station after being turned off the main line. Because of this, the branch had decided that it would not handle multiple trains while staff was available for “singleheaders.” The ruling had been made only in the interests of safety and would be lifted if the sidings involved were extended to an acceptable and safe length, he said. The branch had conveyed that decision to the department with the provision that, in certain circumstances, to avoid delays to important freight, it would make exceptions to the ruling. “Since 1963, only one siding, at Moana, has been lengthened, and the department in that time has made only one attempt to run a double header, which was refused,” said Mr Leckie.

“The department has known for months that it intended to use double-headers, but, in spite of its knowledge of our

1963 stand, made no attempt to discuss it,” said Mr Leckie. The Greymouth branch had learned of the intention and had attempted to discuss the problem at 10.30 a.m. on Monday. “We asked the department not to run doubleheaders in the meantime so that we could have time to discuss it. We wanted to thrash it out without causing any inconvenience to the railway system,” said Mr Leckie. At 8.30 p.m. on Monday, the society was informed that multiple trains would run today and that any guard refusing duty would be suspended. The society had instructed the signalmen not to move the multiple trains. “We did this so that other traffic would not be affected,” he said.

The department had then, said Mr Leckie, replied by bringing on signalmen successively during the night. As each man refused to move the trains, he was suspended. At 4.30 this morning, the union had repeated that it would let all other trains through, but the five men were still suspended.

All other traffic branch men had been put on two days annual leave, which was not in compliance with the agreement, Mr Leckie said. Main-line trains out of Westport were cancelled today. Although the Westport branch of the union is not involved, trains from there could travel only as far as Reefton.