OTAHUHU STRIKE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 290, 5 November 1938, Page 7

OTAHUHU STRIKE

A FRESH DEVELOPMENT. LABOUR FIiDERATION’S INTEREST. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. 4. The principal Wellington developments to-day in connection with the strike of employees at the Otahuhu railway workshops were the entry into the dispute of the New Zealand Federation of Labour and the departure of representatives of the federation, the New Zealand Railway Tradesmen’s Association, and the Boilermakers’ Federation for Auckland to-night. It appears from information that can be obtained in 'Wellington that the national offices in Wellington of the organisations concerned have been con-, centrating their attention on confining the dispute to Otahuhu and.are moving in the direction of obtaining an early settlement there.

This morning a conference was held between the represntatives of the A.S.R.S., Railway Tradesmen’s Association, and the National Council of the Federation of Labour to which representatives of the Boilermakers’ Federation a union which includes men employed by the Government as well as men employed by private Anns, were later admitted. It was decided to advise the men at the, Otahuhu Workshops to return to, work under the conditions laid down by the Minister of Railways, who had given an assurance that immediately that was done negotiations would be opened. Upon leaving the conference the officers of the national organisations went to the Hutt Workshops, where a meeting of all the 2000 employees was being held at the call of the local combined committee of the A.S.R.g. and Railway Tradesmen’s Association. Mr F. P. Walsli, a member of the National Council of the Federation of Labour, addressed the men and acquainted them of the decision of the conference. Many of the workers there have felt sympathy with the Auckland strikers, but the meeting confined itself to passing a motion of sympathy. The meeting decided to leave the handling of the dispute to the Federation of Labour.