DRIVERS WILL CAUSE UPSET IN AUCKLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 June 1950, Page 5

DRIVERS WILL CAUSE UPSET IN AUCKLAND

AUCKLAND, This Day (P.A.).— Thirty thousand Auckland workers, shoppers and other daily users of pri-vately-operated suburban bus services face the prospect of being left without transport next Wednesday, June 28.

The Auckland Drivers’ Union served notice on the companies today that, in conformity with a union resolution, no work will be done on June 28 as a protest against increased prices and the removal of subsibies. Though their notice to the bus companies does not say how long the stoppage will be, the inference is that for a whole day the tramway employees of Auckland will stop work from 1.30 to 4 p.m. The drivers of buses operated by the Auckland Transport Board on the Mission Bay-Kohimarama, St Hel-liers-Glendowie route and to the Orakei State suburb come under, the Tramways Union and will observe the same length of stoppage as the tramway men. 1

The Railway Road Services is not involved as it is outside the Auckland Drivers’ Union 25-mile radius. Similar notification to that given by the bus companies has been received by the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association from the Driver’s Union. It does not indicate whether household deliveries will be affected

or to what extent the general carrying by commercial firms will be involved.

A meeting of the North Shore Transport Company drivers will be held tonight. Between 15,000 and 20,000 passengers are carried daily on the feeder services to the f err ids. There is. no alternative service for North Shore workers coming to and from the city. The Auckland tramway employees in a recent ballot yesterday passed a resolution that members of the union take part in a demonstration on the opening day of Parliament as a protest against increased prices and the Government’s wage policy. It was decided that fvork cease for this purpose from 1.30 to 4 p.m. Another resolution passed recorded the union’s emphatic disapproval of the Arbitration Court’s recent wage pronouncement, said the secretary, Mr F. A. Whitlow today. Discrimination had been shown against the women workers and the union always jealously guarded the principle of equal pay lor equal work. The freezing works employees are not expected to take part in the demonstration on Wednesday. At a meeting of the Trades Hall yesterday they carried a resolution of loyalty to the Federation of Labour, which opposes the proposed work stoppage.

The Auckland watersiders, as previously announced, will not work on Wednesday.