THE RAILWAYMEN

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 21 May 1924, Page 5

THE RAILWAYMEN

HOW THE STRIKE WAS SETTLED

WEAPONS USED BY GOVERNMENT

LABOUR. CIRCLES PERTURBED

METHOD OF INQUIRY

(By Telegraph.—Special to Star.) WELLINGTON, May 20. Labour circles are greatly stirred over the news that the government has insisted on the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants cancelling affiliation with tlie Alliance of Labour, and there is a feeling of resentment that the Government has been too revengeful in threatening to take away superannuation ana various privileges unless the affiliation is cancelled. The position is that the railwaymen have withdrawn from the Alliance under duress, and, as one important railway official remarked to-day, will not alter the feelings of the railwaymen towards the Alliance. "If we ever go on strike again," he said, "the Alliance will.be only too willing to come to our aid as a result of the Government's present action."

Government circles maintain that no section of State employees should bs allowed to be linked up with any militant outside organisation such a s the Alliance of Labour It will be recalled that the Government successfully resisted the movement for the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association to join the Alliance, and the Government action in the present instance follows it's policy of endeavouring to keep the public service associations separate from outside influences. As a result of a recent agitation from various sections of the Government service, Cabinet decided to take strong action to resist anything in the nature of dictation in future, as it was feared that if things were allowed to drift as they were going the Government would be merely permitted to govern at the whim of its own employees, a condition of affairs which, it was said, could not be tolerated. By the further addition to the demand that the railwaymen must leave the Alliance of Labour or lose their superannuation and concessions, the Railway Department intended to wield another strong weapon in order to bring about a quick, and, from the Department's point of view, a sue-I cessful termination of the strike. This wa s to issue an ultimatum that those i men not returning to work by a certain ! date were to be dismissed from the service and their places filled by others. of whom it is stated there was a long waiting list. By means the news of this intention on the part of the Department seems to have got abroad among the railwaj'men before it was officially conveyed, and it is believed that thnt is one of the real reasons why many men drifted back to duty, thus hastening the collapse of the strike. After the railwaymen had resumed work it was reported that an exhaustive inquiry would be made into the whole railway service. It has not been authoritatively stated that a Royal Commission will be set up for this purpose, although a commission has been mentioned. So far as a commission is concerned, however, it is thought that this will take some time to set up, possibly three or four months if experts are to be brought in from outside. If .a commission is set up, it is claimed that the Minister's own report on the railway s will be so much waste paner. On the other hand it is suggested that if a commission is appointed it would obviate the railwavmen's crrievances and railway affairs generally being discussed on the floor of th<» House in the roming session, a n position which would suit the Reform Party from a tactical standpoint.