AUCKLAND DRIVERS

Grey River Argus, 15 January 1944, Page 2

AUCKLAND DRIVERS

Decisions of Meeting NO BUSES TO-MORROW P.A. AUCKLAND, Jan 14. A stopwork meeting of the Drivers Union held in the Auckland Town Hall this morning was attended by about 1,500 drivers. The meeting was the latest development in the bus dispute. During the two-hour period when the meeting was in progress,’ only trucks driven by owner-drivers were on the roads or streets in Auckland. About seventv buses were lined up at the transport terminal outside tne Town Hall. There were hundreds of trucks and delivery vans. About a dozen women drivers were . among those who attended the meeting, which was presided over by the President of the Union (Mr. E. Taylor), and was briefly addressed also by the Union Secretary (Mr. G. Matthews) and the Union organiser (Mr. F. D. Muller). The. meeting was marked by severe criticsm of the action of the Minister of Labour regarding the dispute. one stage of the meeting, a motion was proposed for a general drivers’ strike starting next Sunday, but was defeated in favour of a more m.bdierale amendment! covering the bus drivers only. The following decisions were made: (1 > No buses will be run within a 25 mile radius of the Auckland .Chief. Post Office next Sunday (2) If within seven days from today the dispute between the Auckland omnibus drivers and proprietors, concerning double time for Sunday work is not settled all buses within the 25-mile radius will cease running. (3) If the section of the Drivers Union within the area covered by the Government’s deregistration order is not re-registered by the Government within ten days, a further stopwork meeting of Auckland drivers will be called.