STRIKE IMMINENT

Evening Star, Issue 21092, 3 May 1932, Page 12

STRIKE IMMINENT

CHRISTCHURCH TRAMWAYMEN HOLD OUT VICTIMISATION ALLEGED [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 2. A tramway strike in Christchurch seems unavoidable unless there is a last-minnte change of front by the Tramway Board or its traffic staff. A meeting of the two parties this afternoon served only to widen the breach and the men have declared that they will not take the cars out of the sheds on Wednesday morning. The employees have been asked to hand in their equipment to-morrow night, and they will be dismissed from the service. It is understood that the Minister in Charge of Unemployment (Hon. J. G. Coates) has made representations to both, parties. While the board understands that tho decision to strike was reached on a small majority, and after a show of hands, tho secretary of tho union (Mr E. Snow) declares that a secret ballot was taken on Sunday. The reason for the threatened strike, it is alleged, is not primarily the men’s objection to rationing. They claim that the twelve men dismissed have been victimised. These men include one with seventeen years service, and the majority have between seven and twelve years’ service. The union stats that they are dismissed because of their “activities in tho industrial and political fields,” or because “ they had opposed the unjust punishment inflicted by the board’s officers.” The president of the union (Mr J. Mathieson) is one of the dismissed men.

Meetings of the union will be held to-day. At present it is intended to confine the disp-te to the traffic men in the tram service, but the board, evidently fearing that the strike may involve the whole service, has advertised for men for all branches of the work.