STRIKE IN MELBOURNE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 11

STRIKE IN MELBOURNE

EVE OF CEXTEiVARY

MEN PRESS WAGE DEMANDS

SERIOUS TRAFFIC PROBLEM

! United Tl-css Association—By Electric Teleerai>li—Copyright. MELBOURNE, October 16. A mass meeting of 4000 Iramwaymen held this morning at the West Melbourne Stadium at first rejected the executive's recommendation for an extension of the stopwork meeting into a strike, and instructed their executive to negotiate further with the Tramway Board, but hopes that the celebrations would not be marred by further tramway trouble were dashed when the meeting decided not to resume until the men's demands are met. The Tramway Board is determined that there will be no negotiations till the trams resume. When the tramwaymen's representatives waited on the Tramway Board this afternoon the chairman, said that ho regretted that the board could not negotiate with them while the men were on strike. This decision will be j conveyed to the men at a further mass meeting tomorrow morning, when again no trams will be running. AVith no trams running today city workers solved transport problems in their own way. Many used bicycles, some carrying girls on the handlebars. One man is reported to have reached j the city from the suburb of Brunswick j on roller skates. EMERGENCY SERVICES. Railway traffic was extremely heavy, tho department estimating that 100,000 extra passengers were carried this morning. It is estimated that 10 per cent, of the people were conveyed to their offices by motor-cars. Services provided by motor-buses plying in the suburbs were extended to the city, resulting iji serious overloading. Emergency buses began this afternoon, and will continue tomorrow. All classes of vehicles have been requisitioned. There was great confusion on the suburban railways when the 300,000 people normally carried by the trams were distributed between emergency buses and trains. The tramwaymen meet again tomorrow. The president of the union expressed regret that after 100 years of progress the men had had to resort to j direct action to force their just do-1 mands.