HARD REBUFF

Evening Star, Issue 23727, 7 November 1940, Page 10

HARD REBUFF

m SEMPLE REFUSES TO MEET DISMISSED MEN THE MAIN TRUNK DISPUTE [Peu United Phess Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, November 7. That he has no intention of interfering in the dispute between the men employed on the South Island Main Trunk railway and the executive of the New Zealand Workers’ Union was made perfectly clear by Mr Semple to-day in reply to a telegram which he has received, reading; “A mass meeting of the men locked out on the Main Trunk request your presence and Mr R. Eddy’s on the job at your earliest convenience.” Mr Semple telegraphed a reply saying: “ It is not my intention to comply with your request, as I have nothing to discuss with the men alleged to be locked out. Ever since I have been Minister of Public Works I have complied faithfully with every principle in the Public Works workers’ agreement. It is the men who have broken the agreement. They have_ used the preference clause when it suited them, and now they wish to ignore it because of a domestic ouarrel witli the union. I have never interfered with the running of the union; that is their job, not mine; but I am determined that the agreement shall not he violated over disputes that are not governed by the terms of the agreement. “ My advice to the men is to comply with the terms of their agreement, return to work forthwith, and settle union difficulies in a constitutional manner. There is no use communicating with me any further. The terms of the agreement are entirely in the favour of the men, as the preference clause was inserted at their own request to protect them against non-union labour. It is amazing that this clause should now be used to destroy the principle for which it was My Government is carrying on this job under considerable difficulty during the war period. At the moment we are fighting for our existence with the enemy at our very gates, and the public and the Government are in no mood to tolerate the holding up of a large Public Works job on issues that bear no relationship to the urgency for the speeding up of its completion.”