STRIKE ENDED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 18, 21 July 1944, Page 6

STRIKE ENDED

AUCKLAND GASWORKS

A.DEPUTATION ARRANGED

p A AUCKLAND, This Day. The employees of the Auckland gasworks returned to work this morning, and every endeavour is being made to produce sufficient gas in time for cooking the evening meal tomorrow. It is proposed to have three restrict-.. Ed periods for the use of gas. On Sunday a short period will be provided in the morning and evening for cooking, with three hours of gas for tne midday dinner. . _ The manager of the Auckland uas Company, Mr. R. Worley, said .this afternoon that he did not think if possible to resume the supply of gas to industry before Wednesday. - The decision to resume work was made as the result of a meeting of the strikers in the Trades Hall this morning Mr. F. P. Walsh, an executive officer of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, told the employees that the > Government would not discuss the position until work was resumed.' The meeting decided to return to work and to send a deputation of six representatives of the employees and the Auckland Trades Council to Wei- , lington on Monday to open negotiations with the Government.

Asked after the workers had decided to resume whether their action in not allowing the officers of their unions and representatives of the Auckland Trades Council to be present at the strike meetings had the approval of the executive of the Federation of Labour, Mr. Walsh said that the workers' action in, this respect was contrary to the principles of the trades union movement and democracy. Such action must react to the detriment of the workers concerned, and continuation of such tactics would end the trades union movement and the federation. He felt that the strikers were now convinced they had made a- mistake in adopting such an attitude. ' -