THE STRIKE SPREADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17457, 29 April 1920, Page 5

THE STRIKE SPREADS.

ACTION BY THE A.S.R.S.

; MEMBERS TO CEASE WORK. BALLOT DECISION FOLLOWED. CONFINED TO NORTH ISLAND. TbT TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION.] "WELLINGTON. Wednesday The following urgent telegram has been addressed to the Prime Minister by Mr. R. Hampton, president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants : — "The recent ballot is overwhelmingly in favour of a general strike. Our repeated representations to the Government and the Department that the situation was critical not having been taken seriously, ■ we have now no alternative but to give effect to the members' decision forthwith. For the present the strike will bo confined to the North Island. —R. Hampton (president), M. J. Mack (general secretary)." In a statement on the situation to a reporter Mr. Hampton s&id : — "I myself, and my executive have done our utmost right up to the last minute to avert the spreading of the strike. We had hoped that some reply would have reached us to-day from the Prime Minister that our request for a hearing under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act would be granted. Had this come through I believa my executive could have staved off the spread oi the trouble, but in the absence of any reply, and with pressuie j from our branches and also with the emphatic decision by a secret ballot in favour of a strike, we can no longer lake any other course than that now adopted. Our ballot was a very large one. We have the ballot papers here in our own office, and if any question arises as to the number of votes recorded' or to how I the men voted our ballot papers are open ' for inspection by any responsible officer ' of the Government should such a scrutiny be desired." While the executive of the Amalgamated i Society of Railway Servants was sitting 4x> consider what action should be taken, there was a crowd of several hundred railwaymen waiting below in the street to hear the result. When the announcement was made to them that the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants were in the strike from that moment, the crowd cheered very loudly and received the news with quite evident satisfaction. The secretary of the Locomotive Enginedrivers, Firemen, and Cleaners' Association, Mr. McArley, stated to-day that every member of the association- in the North Island had left work. " The men," he said, "will not go back until there is a reasonable prospect of their demands for higher wages and improved conditions being conceded by the Government. "We want the standard wage paid to locomotive men in the English-speaking world." he continued. "We also want vastlv improved conditions, and those conditions must be in black and white, written in plain language, and duly signed up bv both sides.'' Mr. McArley said further that in the past the association had not been able to hold the Department to anything. _Now it was going to be more careful. " The fact at present is that drivers by working a great "deal of overtime are able to earn j much more than what is commonly railed I a I; ving wage," he said. "They do not I want to go on working the present very I hard hours, and they want an improve i ment in status, not only as compared with j other branches of work outside of the service, but as compared with other ratings in the service."' •• Roughly speaking, the claim of the locomotive "men is that a first-class engine•driver ought to be worth double as much as the unskilled worker who can earn no more than the basic wage, but they would probably be prepared to settl° this dispute for less than double the basic wage in New Zealand. The fact that men can obtain more money for their work outride the service than they have, been able to get in the service has led to heavy resign nat.ons, and the resignations of drivers has been a source of grave difficulty. The running services have "been maintained only by asking men to work very Ion" hours.

"These are facts. Nine drivers have left Thorndon within the past few weeks. and gone out of the Department, and even before they left the shortage of men was sufficient to cause anxiety. The same drift from the service is to" be observed in other branches. In the Pelone workshops, for instance, there are now 43 fitters, whereas formerly there used to be about 120. It is impossible to do the work with 43 men, especially as the men remaining are discontented. " The report also is that the men who have gone from the shops were the best men. Before the strike occurred, a crisis was rapidly approaching, both hi the running branches and in the shops."