TUNNEL WORKERS' PAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20244, 2 May 1929, Page 17

TUNNEL WORKERS' PAY.

HIGHER RATES SOUGHT. NAPIER-WAIROA RAILWAY. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday. Contending that an increase in the rales of pay is justified because of the wet conditions to bo encountered in the piercing of the Ivotemaori tunnel on the NapierWairoa section of the East Coast railway, tho New Zealand Workers' Union is urging men not to accept work at the tunnel until further notice. Mr. Arthur Cook, the general secretary to the union, declined to go into details when the matter was mentioned to him to-day because, he said, negotiations were proceeding between the union and the Public Works Department on the matter. All that Mr. Cook was prepared to say was that men were working on the bottom heading of the tunnel, the price for which had been increased by 5s per foot when representations were made to the department a little while ago. There had not been any stoppage of work, nor was there likely to be any, but the men were negotiating for a price for tho complete tunnel and in the meantime they did not want any outsiders brought in. Mr. Cook added that tho department had reduced the rate to considerably below what was paid for other work on the section whcio the conditions were much better. The men claimed that the conditions in f tho Ivotemaori tunnel so far as water was concerned were worse than in any other tunnel on that line. As one of the department's inspecting engineers was going from Wellington to have a look at the job, an arrangement to this end having been rnado with the department, Mr. Cook did not wish to say anything more about the matter in the meantime.

When the question was referred to the Minister of Public Works, Hon. E. A. Ransom, he replied, "The matter has been gone into very carefully by the department's engineers, both local and head office, and it is considered that the prices that havo been fixed are such as will enable the men to make wages considerably in advance of the award rate of wages for that class of work. If some workers are at present finding difficulty in getting any work at (he basic rate of 14s per day I do not think that others should refuse to continue in employment at rates which will enable them to earn approximately double that amount."