TAWA FLAT TUNNEL DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 87, 11 January 1928, Page 10

TAWA FLAT TUNNEL DISPUTE

STATEMENTS FROM BOTH SIDES QUESTIONS OF TRANSPORT AND SAFETY The secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union (Mr. A. Cook), yesterday made a statement analysing the causes of the stoppage of work on the Tawa Flat tunnel. He says that the three points on which Messrs. Burnside and Matthews, the contractors, refused to agree with the men’s representatives were: —•(.!) The contractors offered 18s. per shift to a majority of the underground men, as against the men’s claims of 205.; (2) the men’s recpiest £<sr a conveyance to take the men on afternoon shift, coming off work at midnight after eight hours’ work underground, drenched with slush and water, was refused. Mr. Cook states that a conveyance capable of carrying twelve men could take every man on this shift to his lodging in an hour; (3) the contractors’ refusal to reinstate two union officers, who Mr. Cook states were wrongfullv dismissed. Mr. Cook also states that the No. 1 heading on the Hutt Road requires battering and timbering to make it safe, and to avoid the possibility of fatalities. Pointing out the dangers and hardships of tunnelling, Mr. Cook traverses the historv of such big undertakings in New Zealand, in which he says that over twenty men have lost their" lives, and concludes by saying that if the contractors are prepared to meet the men in a fair and reasonable manner, and give them bare justice, they will receive good service in return; if thev persist in their present attitude they will never carry the works through. Contractors’ Reply.

Mr. Matthews, of the firm of contractors for the heading of the tunnel, says, in reply, that he and his partner, Mr. Burnside, who is at present absent from Wellington, had received some three hundred applications in answer to an advertisement, all of which accepted the wages of £1 per day for machine men, 235. for shift bosses, and 18s. for shovellers. Many of these men had excellent references, and experience on public works and other contracts. All were willing to start on the job at the wages offered. lu regard to the refusal to provide a conveyance,. Mr. Matthews said that to put on a regular conveyance, such as was suggested, would entail the same fees in licenses as a bus running all day. The cost of a bus carrying twelve men, as suggested, would be £25 a year, with other charges in addition. Besides this, the contractors had been faced with the difficulty that, while some of the men wanted a bus to take them to Thorndon, the greater proportion of the men lived in other places, quite a number in Petone, and some in Johnsonville. To have given one set of residents the concession would have meant giving it to all. In regard to the men discharged, none of them would be taken on again, as they had been fully justified in getting nd of them. Question of Safety. With regard to the safety of the No. 1 head, Mr. Matthews said that it would take an immense amouilt of timber to make the face thoroughly safe, as might be gathered from the recent slip on the Hutt Road. ‘While we are the contractors,” he said,.“we are not in sole charge of the conditions regarding safety, but we are subject to regular inspection, and the Public Works engineer would soon say, if it was necessary, that timbering should be placed there. Mr. Burnside has had a great deal of experience in tunnelling. This is his fifteenth tunnel in New Zealand which he has had charge over, and he’ has not yet lost a life over that experience. “As for our not finishing the tunnel, we intend to finish it.”