Rail services face disruption

Press, 2 May 1988, Page 1

Rail services face disruption

SUE LANCASTER

By I

Dozens of south island

travellers might be stranded today or face long waits because railway workers will hold a stop-work meeting which has been labelled by the Railways Corporation as unlawful. All South Island passenger trains will be at a standstill and several bus services will be disrupted because of the stop-work meeting this morning by the Canterbury branch of the National Union of Railwaymen. Many bus passengers might have to take pot luck as to whether their bus will 'be running and its departure time. Train services to and from Invercargill, Plcton, Greymouth and Christchurch have been cancelled. The stop-work meeting is to consider whether the Canterbury branch should break from the national union and whether to join the Blenheim branch. An internal dispute in the union has been simmering for several months. The call for the new union came after the resignation on March 4 of the union’s national president, Mr Garry

Seating, because of allegations made by the national executive. The Blenheim branch called for the resignation of the national secretary, Mr. Don Goodfellow. The Railways Corporation considers the stop-work meeting to be a strike. The area passenger manager in Christchurch, Mr Alan Coombs, said the corporation’s Interpretation of the meeting was that it was unlawful because it was being held to discuss an internal union dispute and was preventing the Railways carrying on its business. The Canterbury branch secretary of the union, Mr Peter Griffin, said the corporation’s management had known of the stop-work meeting since April 13 but had not acted soon enough. The union had tried to keep the trains running by proposing that unpaid volunteers run them but the corporation said that helpers would have to be paid, he said. The following bus services are cancelled today because of the meeting: Christchurch to Hamner Springs (7.45 a.m.), Christchurch to Akaroa (8.30 a.m.), and Akaroa to Christchurch (3.40 p.m.).