Union action defended

Press, 31 March 1979, Page 2

Union action defended

A ban on shifting the freight of Transport Nelson, Ltd. by the Canterbury branch of the National Union of Railwaymen was lifted just after midnight yesterday after long negotiations between the union and Railways Department representatives. The union had blacked Transport Nelson because it Owns Newmans Coach Lines which had supplied a bus to carry passengers from PicCon to Christchurch last Friday when the railway had been blocked. ’ At a meeting on Monday <te union had decided that the job should have gone to 1 Railways bus. • “The union and the department has come to a “satisfactory agreement” said the assistant district traffic manager (Mr M S. Taylor yesterday.

Passengers travelling to Picton from Christchurch yesterday had been carried I by a Railways bus. It would bring back the 80 people waiting to travel south. The secretary of the I Canterbury branch of the National Union of Railwaymen (Mr B. Foley) said I that the Railways DepartI ment had agreed that a Rail- ■ ways bus should carry pas--1 sengers between Christchurch and Picton when the railway line was blocked. I Mr Foley was replying to assertions by the member of Parliament for Marlborough : (Mr D. L. Kidd) that the 1 carrier ban by the union had been the “action of high- ■ waymen.” ' The action had been taken to “safeguard the livelihood •of railway workers,” Mr Foley said.