MUNITIONS WORK

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 142, 12 March 1941, Page 8

MUNITIONS WORK

Letter From Union To Strikers Men who have been working on munitions work have received the following letter from their union:— “The men engaged on munitions are hereby instructed to remain on their particular work while the national executive meets and till it issues any subsequent instructions. The inspectors of munitions are under the jurisdiction of the Defence Department, and any refusal to perform duty would render you liable to penalties that the army authorities may decide.” The letter is receiving the attention of the men. Bulletin to Men.

The following is aii extract from a bulletin issued to the men yesterday morning: “For years we have made constant efforts through the proper channels to have these grievances rectified. First of all, in 1937, the executives of the A.S.R.S. and the R.T.A. put our requests to the Minister of Railways : in 1938 we again put our case, and once more in 1940. On two successive occasions national conferences of the A.S.R.S. have passed resolutions in favour of the 40-hour week, with overtime paid for Saturday morning work But all these efforts were fruitless. Finally, on February 14 of this year we received what was meant to be the final word from the new Minister, Mr. Semple. He told us that overtime could not be paid and that elimination of Saturday work was not possible. In the meantime, Saturday work was becoming more general, and though it was on a fairly voluntary basis up to last week, it became evh dent that unless action-were taken the 40-hour week would be but an anomaly. “On Wednesday, March 5, some 300 men were requested to work on Saturday overtime, but when they decided to make a stand on the question of overtime pay. the voluntary ■ system suddenly gave way to a compulsory one. The rest of the story you already know--the decision of three mass meetings not to work on Saturday morning. the issue of suspension orders to 28b of our members, and finally, the general stoppage at midday on Monday. And now the emergency regulations have been invoked, declaring the strike illegal. We. who have spared no legal and constitutional efforts to have a just grievance rectified; we, who have worked in many instances 12 hours a day and eight on Saturday,

now find the full forces of law invoked against us We were even prepared to work extra overtime at night, pending the rectification of the Saturday work anomaly, but I his even was not allowed to us."