WAGES QUESTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21581, 7 December 1944, Page 3

WAGES QUESTION

RAILWAY WORKSHOPS STOP-WORK - meeting (P.A.) AUCKLAND. Dec. 7. A stop-work meeting attended by 1200 employees was held at the Otahuhu railway workshops, when the wages question and reduction of overtime, which will take place in the new year, wore fully discussed by the speakers, Mr. L. A. Wheatley, chairman of the Otahuhu branch of the Tradesmen’s Association, and Mr. L. Reid, chairman of the Otahuhu branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. It was stated at the meeting that the question of wages had been delayed for 12 months by the tribunal which was set up for wage adjustments and it was fell that only by a vigorous protest was any satisfaction likely to bo gained. The following motion was passed unanimously: “That owing to the fact that the present price level is based on inflated wages, this mass meeting of employees of the New Zealand railway workshops at Otahuhu will not agree to any reduction in wages with a lessening of the hours: further, that we will, with workers’ direct representation in the management of production, keep up a 48hour level in a 40-hour week with no reduction in pay.”