TRAMWAYMEN CITED

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 8, 10 July 1922, Page 8

TRAMWAYMEN CITED

UNDER ARBITRATION ACT

STRIKE BALLOT BEING TAKEN

TO-DAY.

The eecret ballot of the tramwaymen on the question of going out on strike is being taken to-day^ The ballot is being conducted by;theV,Labour Department in 'accordance, .-with -the■' provisions of the Labour Disputes' Investiga-' tion Act,1 and as the voting 'will be completed by 4 p.m., the result should be available tonight. .Meanwhile, the City Council has taken measures "to cite .the Wellington Tfamwaymeh'e.'. find Powerhouse Employees' Union under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration' Act; and the necessary papers were filed with the Clerk of "Awards this. morning. '■ So far as the Cits Council is concerned, the next step will be a meeting with the men's representatives before the Conciliation Commissioner, when the latter fixes a date for the meeting of a Council of Conciliation. WHAT THE COUNCIL.ASKS. A statement has been published that the City Council asks that the Tramwaymen's Union shall cancel its registration under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act. " The council has never asked that the union shall cancel its registration anywhere," stated the Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P.), to a Post reporter today. "As there is no such thing as registration of a union under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act, the council could not ask for such registration to be cancelled. What the council is asking is that the union should a-gree to disputes being settled in the Arbitration Court, seeing that it is a body registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. The council is of the opinion that th© Arbitration Court is the properly constituted body to deal with industrial disputes, and while it does not desire to cast any reflection on the machinery of the Labour Disputes Investigation Act, it prefers going to the Arbitration Court to settle any differences that may arise." Mi. Wright said that one of the City Council's principal objections to "the i Labour Disputes Investigation Act was that it provided for thi setting up merely of a sort of conciliation committee, with a Conciliation Commissioner, presiding as a rule. Discussions before such a comaaittee in the endeavour to arrive at a mutual understanding involved an immense amount of time on the part of the council's officers. Sometimes these officers lost one, two, or more,, days in trying to reach a decision. "With all this waste of the vauable time of. our officers," added the Mayor, "there is nothing tr enforce a decision. Unless both parties mutually agree to certain things being' done., matters simply . remain where they were at the outset. In plain English, the Labour Disputes Investigation Act does not provide power for the enforcement of decisions arrived at under its machinery. With the Arbitration Court, however, the position is quite different. When the Court makes a pronouncement, it can insist upon its decision being observed by both parties." FARES MUST BE LOWERED. The public should clearly understand, said the Mayoi, that the council was not anxious to reduce wages simply for the sake of getting a reduction. But, Mr.Wright pointed out, the fares on the .; trams had been raised twice, and at the present time people who lived far away ! from the centre of the city laboured under a heavy burden in «o far asi tram fares were concerned. The reason why the tram fares wer« increased was that ■wages went up. If the wages came down erery, penny of reduction must be handed back to the users of the trams in the way of reduced tram fares. . ;