Stop-work meetings by bus-drivers

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 1

Stop-work meetings by bus-drivers

Bus-drivers around the country will hold stop-work meetings on Friday to discuss the employers’ demand to use part-time labour during the rush hours.

Award talks between the Tramway Workers’ Union and the Public Passenger Transport Association broke down in Wellington yesterday when the union withdrew its claim from the Conciliation Council.

The employers have filed a counter-claim and refused to meet any of the union’s demands until the workers are prepared to accept in principle the use of part-time drivers.

The secretary of the Christchurch branch of the union (Mr K. A. Challender) said on his return from Wellington last evening that part-time workers had never been, and would never be, a part of the transport industry as far as the union was concerned. He said that drivers would hold stop-work meetings throughout New Zealand on Friday, but, as yet, the time for the Christchurch meeting had not been set. The local executive will meet to discuss this tonight. He said that the meeting would “discuss the employers’ demand for part-time workers and their refusal to offer any meaningful negotiations.” Asked if there was a chance of the stop-work meeting’s ending in a strike, Mr Challender said that this would be entirely up to the union members on Friday. “Some branches have already intimated that they may not go back to work on Friday,” he said. The employers want to use part-time drivers in an effort to cut down the enormous losses sustained by the country’s public transport systems annually. As there has never been any provision in the award for such drivers, the employers are seeking to include this in the new award, because, of course, without such provision they would be employing non-union labour in their part-timers. The secretary of the Public Passenger Transport Associ-

ation (Mr J. F. Fardell) said yesterday that with public passenger transport services losing sBm a year, the association must be able to employ rush-hour drivers if they are to keep down costs and minimise any greater burden on ratepayers. Mr Challender replied:

"This union will not stand by idly and see its members carry a Joss of antiquated transport systems in New Zealand.” He said that the association’s counter-claim was just a legal technicality used by the employers to further frustrate the union