ALL CONSTRUCTION WORK CEASES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22584, 12 March 1948, Page 6

ALL CONSTRUCTION WORK CEASES

HYDROS 3 SCHEMES IDLE UNIONIST'S TRANSFER VICTIMISATION CHARGE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 11. All construction work on the three major central Waikato power schemes —at Marnetai, Whakamaru and Waipapa—ceased at. midnight, when 900 Public Works and State HydroElectric Department men engaged on these projects went on strike. The Manga kino branch of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, of which all the workers are members, has advised that (he strike will last until its secretary, Mr, L. Claphani, who is described as a Communist and whose transfer to Auckland was ordered recently, is reinstated in his former job as a tunneller at Maractai. The town of Mangakino. with a population of nearly 3000, is anxiously waiting to see what the Government will

The union executive has issued a statement claiming that the case is one of victimisation of a democraticallyelected union official because of his union activities.

It was considered that a vital principle was involved in that a union had the untrammelled right to elect its own union delegate without interference from departmental officials. A skeleton crew of members of the camp staff have gone on duty to man the pumps at Maraetai.

The most serious feature of the strike is the probability that the Works Department may lose many valuable men who might seek jobs elsewhere if the strike continues.