ARAPUNI STRIKE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 137, 14 June 1927, Page 9

ARAPUNI STRIKE

TRIVIAL POINT INVOLVED

ENGINEERED BY ONE MAN

(By; Telegraph.—Press Association.)

■•..-■ HAMILTON, This Day. The whole sum •." involved in the Arapuni strike was 4s 9d, and the dispute arose over a. most unusual and trivial point that may/jnever arise again. It was over an emergency call to a man to attend to tho pumjiii afc nigirt. The men, according to an|vofficial of tho company, adopted a most unusual and certainly ill-considei'ed.Eprbcedure. Instead of negotiating, th'c^de&crted tho pumps, which had to bo manned.by the engineering staff. : The men/according to their agreement, had no light to strike without instructions from., the headquarters of the union at Wellington. Wellington, howeve.r, know nothing of the matter.

Mr. Handman, agent for Armstrong and Whitworth, states that tho company is prepared to negotiate immediately (he men return to work. However, the matter is one oi! principle, as they feel that they mus", have some assuranco that these important-works, which aro of national importance, should not bo seriously impeded by trivial grievances such as this.

Mr. Williams, district organiser of the Labourers/ Union, arrived at Arapuni this morning. It is rumoured that about 75 per cent, of tho men are anxious to return to work, and that the strike, which is not at all popujar, has been engineered largely by one man of tho agitator type.