RAILWAYMEN’S WAGES

Grey River Argus, 26 September 1944, Page 5

RAILWAYMEN’S WAGES

STOP WORK MEETING SUGGESTED/ MR. SEMPLE’S COMMENT P.A. WELLINGTON, Sept. 25 “This threat to hold a stop-work meeting and dislocate the service will not assist the men’s cause,” the Minister of Railways (Mr. Semple) said, to-day referring to the Christchurcn report that railwaymen there had threatened to hold a stop-work meeting on Thursday. At a special meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, attended by more than 400 members, to discuss a wages schedule which has been the subject of negotiation between the Railways Department and the union, the dissatisfaction of the branch with the conduct of these negotiations by the national executive of the union was expressed in the following resolution:— “That we request that all negotiations be broken off in regard to any wages schedules; that the executive be recalled from Wellington; that the executive be issued with a further set of instructions; that any further proposals be submitted to branches before finalising; that this branch calls a branch stop-work meeting during working hours next Thursday at 7.15 a.m. to 9 a.m. Every member of the branch on duty must attend this meeting; every member off duty must attend; a roll-call of names will be taken. Every memberabsent must render satisfactory explanation.” The Minister said that the men were responsible to the general public, and to threaten such action especially in the midst of war was reprehensible and would injure rather than help their cause. He appealed to the men to trust their officers and to give the Railway Tribunal a fair trial The Government had gone to the trouble to set upi a properly constituted Tribunal to deal with grievances and anomalies, and had a sincere desire to clean up disputes for all time. The Tribunal was thoroughly democratic, with railwaymen amply represented. As far as he knew the A.S.R.S. as well as the Department, had been trying to get as near to a settlement as possible,_ and that .was the commensense thing to do. He understood that; a date had been fixed for the Tribunal to hear the case. The Tribunal had been set up by a special Act of Parliament because the men had asked for it, and now some of those men appeared to want to kick it to pieces before it had an opportunity to prove its value to them. “The Canterbury Branch is ac.tmg entirely on its own, and without tne authority of the Society,” a statement issued, to-day by the President (Mr J FI Terry) and the General Secretary (Mr. L. Mcllvride) of the A.S.R.S. declares. The statement added that the wages, and conditions of railwaymen had been the subject oi almost constant conciliation discussions between the Railways Department and the Society since August 22. Many of the offers made by the Department were acceptable, and by September 1, there seemed a likelihood of an amicable settlement, but subsequently it was found that unanimity could not be reached on all points, and it was decided that tne matter should be submitted to tne recently-established Tribunal, would consider the question on uc " to These facts were well-known to the Canterbury Branch, but inspite ot this the Branch had taken the responsibility of independent action By aoing so, it had shown complete disregard of the authority, of the periling body, and in addition wasi i:nvolv ing other railwaymen who had had no § opportunity of expressing aa inion on the wisdom of t set decision. With the men s case set down for hearing, any precipitate ac “on such as that contemntatecl by the Canterbury Branch was likeiy w Sice rathe? than help the claims ot the A.S.R.S. —