The Dominion TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1924. AN ILL-ADVISED STRIKE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 178, 22 April 1924, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1924. AN ILL-ADVISED STRIKE

g Until yesterday morning it was hoped that a railway strike might be averted by the reference of the dispute between the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and the Government to a second Wages Board. For reasons not yet disclosed, however, the union executive rejected this fair and reasonable proposal, and ordered the members of its organisation to cease work at midnight yesterday. Under the leadership of their executive, the members of the Ajaralgamated Society of Railway Servants are in the strange position of being on strike in support of demands they have refused to submit to impartial examination. They are not striking in protest against an unfavourable verdict by a wages tribunal, but in order to prevent an examination of their case in conditions which -would make a considered verdict possible. All who have followed the recent negotiations are aware that the A.S.R.S. executive has twice rejected the opportunity of stating its case before an independent and impartial tribunal. Before the Wages Board presided over by Mb. H. D. Acland, the executive took up an extraordinary attitude. It demanded a decision on one of 72 issues—that of wages —when it was self-evident that a decision regarding that particular issue must be contingent on a decision regarding the others, and that they could not be taken separately. The chairman of the Wages Board —a chairman mutually agreed on by the parties —took an obviously sound and reasonable stand in contending that the whole of the demands submitted by the A.S.R.S. must be considered in their interdependent relationship. Let the railwaymen broke off negotiations on the ground that they wanted the question of wages decided irrespective of the effect of their other claims on the total cost to the country of meeting their demands. They thought apparently that heavy concessions might more easily be extorted piecemeal than at a single call. In the negotiations that have since taken place, the general secretary and the president of the A.S.R.S. seem to have been in accord with the Government in regard to the desirability of setting up another tribunal to investigate and report on the whole question at issue. It seemed for a time that this procedure might lead up to a settlement, but for some unexplained reason the A.S.R.S. executive broke away from the negotiations and put a pistol to the head of the Government. They demanded an increase in wages, in the alternative announcing their determination to strike at midnight. The reply of the Government was in the circumstances only what was to be expected. It threw on the railwaymen the onus of carrying out their threat. It now seems that thq latter have proceeded to throw idle the whole of the railways of the Dominion, casting thousands of workers out of employment, holding up great quantities of produce, hindering all travel for business and other purposes, dislocating mail services, and incidentally upsetting all the arrangements for Fleet Week. It will be remembered that the last railway strike interfered seriously with the early arrangements made in connection with the visit of the Prince of Wales to the Dominion. On the present occasion it certainly will not tend to redeem the action of the railwaymen from unpopularity that they are marring another great Imperial occasion, and probably imposing a severe disappointment on the country school children who were to be brought to Wellington to see the ships of the visiting squadron. It is particularly plain that in refusing to bo coerced by stand-and-deliver tactics, the Government is doing its simple duty to the community, and in particular is defending the interests of the body of wage-earners. ’lt is incidentally defending the ultimate interests of the railwaymen themselves. As the Prime Minister points out, there is an open possibility that we are running into a period of lower prices for produce in oversea markets. In these circumstances, and in view of the heavy war and other burdens already imposed on the national finances, it undoubtedly would be courting disaster to attempt to bolster up railway wages by making heavy additional calls on the Consolidated Fund. The country in any case is carrying all the taxation it can bear. The lowering of taxation is essential, not in the interests of wealthy people, but in order that development may proceed and industry expand, thus making employment plentiful and real wages as high as possible. The maintenance or imposition of taxation to bolster up railway wages would tend to strangle industry and thus to bring about bad times for all classes of workers in the Dominion, including, ultimately, the railwaymen themselves. On the other hand, increases in railway fares and freights—the only other means of obtaining the wherewithal to pay higher wages—would make it more than ever difficult for the railways to make head against motor competition. This policy, also, would handicap industry in general and react ultimately on the railwaymen. In regard to the detail merits of the railwaymen’s case, it seems pretty clear that they are at present quite as well off as any section of the community with which they can reasonably be compared. The weakness of their case appears in the fact that in their official propaganda they have repeatedly deducted from the basic wage the amount of superannuation contributions. How many railwaymen would like to retain the contributions they now pay into the Superannuation Fund, and forgo the ultimate benefits these payments will bring them ? It is, of course, a familiar fact that the railwaymen in normal course get back their superannuation payments not only in full and with interest added, but heavily subsidised by the rest of the community Full account must be taken of superannuation, and of other special benefits that railwaymen enjoy, in order to establish a fair comparison between their wages and working; conditions and those of other workers. By their own ill-advised action, however, the .railwaymen have for the time being set aside the merits of their case, whatever these may be. They are on strike in support; of a deliberate refusal by their executive to submit the merits of their case to a fair and impartial test.