AIR PILOTS' STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18680, 9 April 1924, Page 9

AIR PILOTS' STRIKE.

WAGE REDUCTION REFUSED. TRADES UNION FORMED. LONDON. April 1. Pilots at the Croydon aerodrome hav<, struck work, refusing the reduced wage! offered by the combined air companies, which are forming a new Imperial aiv transport company to start operation next week. The present wages of the pilots are between £800 and £900 a year. It is stated that the company proposes a retaining fee of £100 and adding 2d a mile flown, thus necessitating flight dis-' tances which are a physical impossibility to secure for. pilots the same wages as before. As an outcome of the dispute the disaffected pilots, all of whom are ex-officers with distinguished war records, have formed a trades union, affiliated themselves with the transport workers, and enlisted the services of the noted strike leader, Mr. Robert Williams, secretary of the National Transport Federation, and Messrs. Ben Tillett and B. Smith, M.P.'s, who on Friday motored to the aerodrome. - They addressed a meeting in a giant hangar and enrolled the entire staff of pilots, riggers, mechanics, and traffic hands into the British Aircraft Workers* Union. Mr. Williams directed that no aeropla.no should leave under, the new company's regime until the pilots were adequately paid. He said it was humanly impossible for a pilot to fly 900 hours a year between England and France. Mr. Tillett said that the company's offer of from £100 to £200 as a retainer and twopence a mile flown reduced a pilot to the position of a casual labourer seek- - ing employment at the aerodrome gates. Colonel Searle, managing director of the Imperial Air Transport Company, states that salaries have not been considered, and drastic cuts are not contemplated. The company wants the best : pilots and machines so as to combine safety with speed. Colonel Searle hopes to offer terms which will probably exceed > the present average pay.