Picton rail wives to meet corporation

Press, 24 July 1984, Page 8

Picton rail wives to meet corporation

PA Wellington The wives of four Picton railwaymen will meet the Railways Corporation’s general manager, Mr Gordon Purdy, in Wellington on Thursday morning to talk about the long-running dispute over shunter’s rosters which has interrupted Cook Strait ferry sailings on and off since Easter. Fifteen wives wrote to Mr Purdy 10 days ago about the conflict. The outcome was an invitation for four of them to go to Wellington at the corporation’s expense. Railways will pay for the ferry tickets, transport to the ferry terminal, and lunch. Mrs Anne Hamlin, a spokesman for the group, said last evening that the women’s letter to Mr Purdy said, “Our family lives just cannot function properly under the new rosters.” “...perhaps you are isolated from the fact that your workers need good family lives, and how important it is to the men.” The letter suggested that Mr Purdy might not know what it was like to have “over-tired, irritable,

grumpy husbands from lack of sleep caused by overtime.” The women asked for an assurance that their husbands would not be called back to work on days off. “Sir, surely you have some caring and compassion for us and our children. You cannot be as hardskinned and dictatorial as you sound. “Your shunters do have wives and children, and we are the ones who must live with these men. Surely our pleas are more than myths,” they wrote. A big pay packet did not compensate for arguments over broken arrangements, and the men’s lost patience and understanding. “Our husbands are people, real living people, sir, not machines to be programmed to an inflexible, irregular roster.” Mr Purdy replied that he appreciated the women’s concern and would be pleased to meet them. Mrs Hamlin said her husband had been tense and not himself since the new rosters were introduced. “I have never known him to be like this before in the

seven or eight years we have been in Picton. He cannot get into a sleep pattern. Sometimes he won’t know what work he is doing from one day to the next. “Our son, Andrew, who has just turned five, asks ‘When will Daddy be home?”’ Mrs Hamlin said that the Picton workers were pleased about Mr Purdy’s invitation. “We were quite surprised. It is very pleasing that he is going to listen to somebody.”