RAILWAY CONFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7355, 6 February 1911, Page 1

RAILWAY CONFERENCE

IMPORTANT TOPICS ON THE AGENDA ;

A conference of New Zealand railway delegates, which opens in Wellington today, is of great importance, not only to the railway men, but to 1 organised workers throughout the Dominion. The gathering consists of sixteen delegates, elected by members of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, and directly representing the four sections of the out> door railway staff— maintenance, traffic and workshops. It is hoped that as a result of the deliberations some method will be found by which nearly a thousand locomotive men who have formed a separate trade union will be again induced to throw in their lot with their colleagues in the other branches of the service. A long controversy, in which Parliament had to take a hand, ended in the official recognition of the new .Locomotive Association, though the right of the older society to represent locomotive men's grievances to the Railway Department is maintained. To meet the leaders of the Locomotive Association, who alleged that this section of the service was not properly represented on tho A.S.B.S. executive council, that body adopted a new scheme of direct departmental represeur tation, and resigned so that a new governing body could be appointed by a special conference of departmental delegates meeting to-day. The proceedings are likely to last several days, as the sectional difficulty is not the only one before the railwayman. It is alleged that the Minister for Railways has taken so little notice of representations from the service that the usual method of interviewing him quarterly will have to be superseded by something more effective. The question of actively entering tho .political arena at next general election, in alliance with the Labour party, is almost certain to bo discussed, as several branches of the Amalgamated Society and its journal, “The Railway Review," have advocated tills course. Another important matter on the agenda is tii© proposed appointment of a Dominion organiser for the railway servants' society.