Auckland buses to run; talks arranged

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 14

Auckland buses to run; talks arranged

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, January 12.

Auckland Regional Authority buses will run as usual tomorrow, and the bus-drivers’ union and authority representatives will meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the suspension of a driver.

It had been suggested earlier that drivers would hold a stop-work meeting tomorrow or on Tuesday to discuss the suspension. But the president of the Tramways Union (Mr T. Spiller) said today the union was not anxious to hold such a meeting.

"We want harmonious relations,” he said. “We do not want a dispute.”

The meeting on Tuesday was arranged by the Minister of Labour (Mr Faulkner) after a request from the Industrial Mediator (Mr J. P. Cranston).

Mr Cranston had been asked by the Tramways Union to arrange the meeting. “We wanted the minister to compel the A.R.A. to sit down and talk seriously,” Mr Spiller said. The meeting will discuss the suspension of Mr L. J. V. Shine, union delegate at the authority’s Wiri depot. He was suspended from driving after appearing in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Friday on a charge of refusing to supply a blood sample. No plea was taken, and Mr Shine was remanded for two weeks.

The union says that until the case has been heard, Mr Shine should be presumed innocent and reinstated to driving duties.

But the authority’s general manager (Mr J. F. Y. Shischka) said that because of ; the serious nature of the charge the authority considered the driver should not drive buses until the matter had been settled by the Court.

Mr Shine is suspended on pay.