900 Power Works Men Start Strike

Northern Advocate, 11 March 1948, Page 4

900 Power Works Men Start Strike

HAMILTON. Thu. (Sp.).—Nine hundred men employed on the power schemes at Maraetni, Whakamaru and \\ aipapa stopped work at midnight last night. 1 , TT • The Mangakino branch of the New Zealand Workeis Union, of which all the workers are members, has advised the Piojeci engineer for the whole scheme (Mr J. T. Gilkison) that the str will last until its secretary (Mr L. Clapham), who is described as a Communist, and whose transfer to Auckland recently, is reinstated in his former job as a tunneller at Maiaetai.

The Public Works Department has shown no sign of yielding to the mens demand.

There have been no negotiations between the union and the engineers, : and the people of the town of Man- i galuno, with a population of nearly 1 •3000. are anxiously waiting to see what i the- Government will do. NOISE DIES AWAY A few minutes aider midnight the noise of the compressors ceased. Only the pumps draining the diversion tunnel continued to work. , The several dozen men who had 1 worked the last shift from 4 p.m. to | midnight filed from the portals of the two ends of the tunnel which will ] divert the How of the Waikato River while the dam is built. A skeleton crew of members of the camp staff, who are not on strike, went : on duty to man the pumps. 1 During the day, engineers had all l movable plant removed from both ends 1 of the tunnel in case the pumps could : not be maintained and the tunnel 1 should become flooded. About one-third of the length of the 1 1688 ft diversion tunnel has yet to be 1 pierced. LITTLE WORK YESTERDAY ‘ Although the men were officially at work yesterday, little construction : work was done. , The day was occupied principally in _ returning equipment to depots and | stores. Men engaged on preparatory ] work at the sites of the other dams, Whakamaru. nine miles above Marac- j