INDIGNATION MEETING

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 September 1918, Page 6

INDIGNATION MEETING

BY HILLSIDE WORKSHOPS MEN. The Hillside Workshops employees, Dunedin, held a mass meeting at midday on Wednesday, and passed the following resolution : That this mass meeting of Hillside Workshops employees emphatically protest against the dismissal of Fitter J, C, Smith, who was ordered to transfer to Grey-mouth,-but who, having an invalid wife, who is dependent on the care of her mother, and three children, found it impossible to leave Dunedin. As the facts of the ease are born© out bj r medical testimony, which has not been disputed, this arbitrary action of the Railway Management calls for the severest condemnation. We therefore demand the immediate reinstatement of the member concerned.

It would appear that the men s+roncrlv resent what tbev consider as the unduly harsh treatment of one of their number whose domestic circumstances are such as to render a removal from Dunedin a danger to life.

We have been shown a copy ol a doctor’s certificate, which state I that the wife of Mr. Smith is in extremely delicate health, and has been more or less continually under medical treatment. Further, that she suffers from a. complaint which makes her unfit to be left alone and dependent upon her mother’s, assistance.

We have also been shown a> statement bv the general manager to-the effect that the department has been trvinsr for seven months to fill two vacancies at Greymouth without mflbtiny any undue hardship on the men transferred. The Hillsid’e men maintain that if the department was forced to insist on a man going to Greymouth (which is an unpopular “move”'), compulsion could have been brought to bear on someone so situated that the move would have been at the worst an inconvenience.

We are informed that when Mr. Smith was ordered to proceed to Grevmouth he made representations to the departtnent, both personal!v and through the A.S.R.S., to the effect that, while he himself was perfectly willing to obey the instructions, the state of his wife’s health made it impossible for her to bo moved or left alone. Notwithstanding these representations, the mat), ngement insisted on Mr. Smith making the transfer, the alternative being his dismissal from the service. Consequently the men decided to make the matter public. The resolution of protest is to he sent to the Minister of Railways and to. members of Parliament.—Dunedin Star.