RAILWAYMEN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 154, 29 June 1912, Page 8

RAILWAYMEN

TROUBLES OF THE SECOND DIVISION LONG DISCUSSIONS WITH > MINISTEE. PARLIAMENTARY ACTION ABANDONED. For two years the second-division, employee* of the Railway Department have petitioned Parliament for redress of grievances, hni, this policy has been abandoned, at any rate, for the present, owing to the improved relations between the Minister of, Railways and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants representing the great majority of the men- To-day the society Executive Council adopted the following resolution :—: — * That, as the result of various interviews with the Minister and railway management, this council, representing 6200 members, has decided to abandon the petition as placed before Parliament in 1911. VIEWS OF THE PRESIDENT. The president of the Amalgamated Society, Mr. W. T. Wilson, of Palmerston JNorth, in a brief interview with a Post representative, explained that this resolution had been unanimously adopted by the society's executive at the conclusion of an important series of interviews with the Minister of Railways and the General Manager (Mr. Ronayne). Some of these interviews were lengthy, and. all were characterised by a. spirit of frankness and good feeling. The Minister asked that nothing should be kept back, and the members of the executive had taken advantage of his invitation to thoroughly ventilate thi differences existing between tho department and the eecqnd division. "We conclude our work," said Mr. Wilson, "feeling that when our members hear the details they will be well satisfied with the results to date. Ido not say that wo have complete cause for satisfaction, because some important "matters we raised have not been finally settled, but the degree of success already achieved justifies me infßaying that we are pleased with what has been conceded, and we have absolute confidence in Mr. Myers's sincerity and sympathy. A greatly improved feeling will at ones result in the service, and this will give further impetus to the movement for new members, which has been inaugurated with phenomenal success, nearly 300 having joined within two months. The general secretary (Mr. Mack) and myself will shortly visit all the society's branches, now nearly fifty in number 1 ."