DISRUPTION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1298, 29 November 1911, Page 4

DISRUPTION.

IN THE RAILWAY SOCIETY. THE TRACK MEN TIREU. AND CONTEMPLATE SECEDING. The rumour of impending disruption in thi! Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants is confirmed. A meeling of the surfacemen employed on Hie lengths of lino adjacent In Wellington met nn Salurday night, and at Hie meeting Hie following molion wai, carried iinnnimously: -- "That Hie tirno has arrived when maintenance men should KUpport a union of I heir own.", Tho same meeling set up a committee In communicate with Ihc maintenance men in other centres, with Hie object nf forming a new union apart from III" A.S.tt.S. Tho com mil kn will formulate a r,<:hem« and report lo a later meeting, The Reason Why. "Wo are lireil of pulling into Hiis huge concern which does us no good," Miid a. surfaceman who is one oi Ihe lenders of Iho new niovenienl, to a. Dominion reprelienliilive yenlerday. "I know that there i:, U great, deal of dissalisfaclion amonrtst our men nlmul. the treatment, which they have received recently through the pavsing of the recent llaihvay Hill. Tliey think Hint Iheir winils are overshado-.ved by the deinanils id' other railway men in Hie higher gradeii of lh« hccond division—the locoinolivn men, guards, and senior mechanics. These men'.i grievances are eonsislenlly paraded before the people and I'arlhiineiit. Tliey are always holding lit tin meetings of their own apart from the A.N,U.S. Tho locomotive men have a r.npnnite union of their own; and Hie guards havo a club of their own. This Hill makes it appear that these men aj'e tho only men in the railway service, and Iho work of Iho men who man t.lio tracks Ilirniiglioiit New Zealand is lost sight, of in a eonglomernlo body like the society. We Ihinlr that ive can manage our own internal nfi'nirs better than the A.S.R.S. can manage them, and wo propose to do it. Wo don't think the secession need be permanent; we may come back again into a federation of unions of railway servants. The locomotive men have said Hio same tiling. Wo think, at any rate, that we can so manage our affairs as to secure fuller consideration for our men than they receive at present. Low-paid Men Want Justice. " And it is the low-paid men who are the pillars of the A.S.R.S. We have no preference to unionists in the railway service, and half of tho men who have got increases lately are not even in the A.S.R.S. Yet tliey have representatives on the executive. They are 1 on velvet. I think that wo havo some justification for this movement. In the workshops, for instance, there are a great number of mechanics, and very few of them belong to our society, but they all got increases. Wo are placed at a disadvantage all the time. No, wo haven't any particular complaint with the executive of tho A.S.R.S. Wo don't want to start in and have a fight with them. But you may take it that the movement will meet with success. Right throughout the country the feeling is general amongst our men that (hey don't get justice from the A.S.R.S. Shops Men May Come Out. "I havo heard it rumoured, too, that the shops men are going out of tho society. They havo been acting apart from it for some time. They had a conference last year, at which delegates from all over the country attended, and some of tho delegates were not even members of tho .society. I think that in the end all the branches of the service will form separate unions, which afterwards will combino (o form a federation. "The other departments have been parading their grievances, their hard work, and their heavy responsibilities, until it seems to uio to verge on the ridiculous. If our men were 'to enlarge on their responsibilities ill maintaining tracks in.proper order over heavy gradients and curves, it anight-appear that there was- a'certain .amount'of skill in our work, too. And how we haven't even got a 48 hours' week. Our men often have to walk miles and miles lo get on to their work. Tliey get some allowance in time, but their weekis much more than 48 hours a week. It's time something was done, and we're going to do it ourselves."