Effects Of Go-Slow Will Increase

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32396, 8 September 1970, Page 1

Effects Of Go-Slow Will Increase

The go-slow by Post Office workers in Christchurch will get worse the longer it lasts.

Yesterday, the first full day of the go-slow, the effects on the public were mainly felt by those making toll calls.

Delays of up to half an hour in getting tolls were suffered by many callers, and an hour’s delay was not uncommon last evening. The toll-call operators’ output was down by 70 per cent The sorting of mail was slowed by 30 per cent, but this delay will not be felt by receivers of mail until today. The position will get worse during the week.

The work done by postal clerical workers in Christ church was about one-third of the normal. “The effect of the go-slow in the delivery of letters, and telegrams, will get worse as long as the go-slow continues,” said the Chief Postmaster (Mr M. T. Reedy). “It can be likened to a pile of dirt to be moved—more dirt being put into the pile, and less getting moved, so the pile gets bigger and bigger.” Later Letters

He explained that postmen who normally got 800 to 1000 letters a day to deliver, would today receive about 2QO. The postmen were not part of the go-slow, but with only 200 letters a day coming to them for delivery, they would be delivering letters later and latei- as the pile to be delivered got bigger. Telegram branch operators yesterday also got through about one-third of their normal work. At 2 p.m. yesterday, the Christchurch Post Office had 450 telegrams for delivery to Auckland. 230 for Wellington and 60 for Dunedin.

“Only a trickle of telegrams is coming into Christchurch from outside centres compared with the usual flow,” Mr Reedy said. He said that urgent telegrams—social security beneficiary orders, chemists’ and doctors’ requirements, and so on—were being given priority and normal treatment. Telegrams containing “urgent information” were being given the same treatment. Telephone callers using the emergency services—fire brigades, police, hospital—were being given priority and the “normal” treatment, arid the staff, many of them on “goslow.” were assisting in maintaining these services. ■ Mr Reedy said that the full delay in the sorting would start to be felt by the renters of private mail-boxes today. One Call The toll-call switchboard operators are dealing with only one call at a time. Having made the connection requested they are waiting until the call has ended before taking another incoming toll call. Normally they handle three calls at a time. While a caller is waiting for an answer to tolls, that line is “engaged” to local calls. Most of the business calls from Christchurch yesterday

were to main centres, with “dial direct” facilities to the toll-call operators. Last evening, many of the calls were private ones to smaller centres, so that “switching time” (the Christchurch exchange dialling the wanted local outside exchange) was added to the time of delay. The Post Office regional engineer (Mr H. W. Wilkinson) said that “switching time” added to the delay as calls became “stacked up” like aircraft circling to land at a busy airport. He said that a bottleneck had occurred on the complaints number in Christchurch yesterday at one stage because of callers telephoning (about 150 of them) to complain about long delays in getting an answer from tolls (normally, a delay of from three to five minutes at peak periods). Mr Wilkinson pointed out that such complaints did not do any good because it was the go-slow not mechanical faults. He said engineers were working normally, with speed and efficiency, in fixing mechanical faults.

However, once the backlog of work to be done by engineers had been done, they would be forced to slow because only about one-third of the normal output of work orders from the engineers’ clerical workers would be coming through. Not Enjoyable By and large, the “go-slow” workers did not enjoy their hours at work yesterday. Many of them questioned on leaving, said they were glad the day was over. Sorting at a deliberately slow speed, and making toll connections at greatly less than usual efficiency, was hard on workers skilled at their jobs. “It was a long day. It will take a few days to get into the swing of the go-slow,” said a worker of many years experience.

“In some ways it would be not nearly so hard if they stopped work altogether. Then we would know where we stood,” said an executive who had dealt with scores of complaints from the public. But counter-hands, telephone operators and mailroom supervisors were careful to keep the normal high standard of Post Office courtesy in their dealings with the public. .