RAILWAY TRADESMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 March 1945, Page 2

RAILWAY TRADESMEN

MEETING AT GREYMOUTH

The statement that from a tradesmen’s point of view he considered, like Dr. Sutch, that the . Railways Tribunal had not done justice to skilled workers and tradesmen and that, no doubt, this would be taken up again at a later date, was made by the General Secretary of the Railway Tradesmen’s Association, Mr. 1. F. Gebbie, when he addressed a meeting of the Greymouth branch on Tuesday, on the recent activities ol the Tribunal. , . . . During his address, he. acquainted members with several points in connection with the delay of the Tribunal in reaching its decision, one ol the main factors being that in the original presentation of the railwaymen’s case great difficulty was experienced by the four separate organisations concerned in arriving at a degree of unanimity as to what policy they would lay down. Mr. Gebbie maintained that the decisions given by the Tribunal had several satisfactory features, in that, among other things, railwaymen gained lodging allowances for apprentices in the various trades. This in itself was a step forward from an economic point of view, giving greater opportunity for the sons of working parents to continue or to remain in the skilled workers class. He maintained that the working class as. a whole should do their utmost to strengthen the Labour movement by discontinuing to make the Government a chopping block for industrial disputes, and that railwaymen should strive to get greater unanimity between Labour organisations.