STRIKE TRIBUNAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26793, 9 June 1948, Page 4

STRIKE TRIBUNAL

Criticism of Proceedings AFFRONTS TO COUNCIL A submission that the proceedings of the special tribunal set up last Saturday to deal with the transport strike were redundant and would be cast aside if taken before the Supreme Court was. made at the meeting of the City Council by the chairman of the Transport Committee, Cr E. J. Anderson. There was no need, he said, for the establishment of the tribunal in question unless it was to offer an affront to a responsible municipal corporation. The question of the money involved was not th 4 root cause of the strike—the strike had already occurred before the matter was raised. Cr Anderson’s remarks were made when a supplementary report from the Transport Committee was brought before the council. Discussion on the report also brought out a reference to the coincidence of the visit of the secretary of the Queensland Communist Party the day before the strike, and a further critical reference to the actions and remarks of the Dunedin members of Parliament at a meeting of the Tramwaymen’s Union.

The sequence of events of the strike negotiations were recalled by Cr Anderson. Last Saturday’s tribunal had been set up on the orders of the Prime Minister, he said, and the speaker had prepared his submissions to place before the tribunal. He regretted to add that his submissions were not even discussed. “ Where for almost 30 years I have been making responsible submissions on responsible issues, on this occasion I might just as well have called myself ‘Little Sir Echo,’” Cr Anderson continued. He said that the Tramways Emergency Committee was to sit today, and the tribunal which met on Saturday morning was redundant. Cr Anderson said that he made no submissions to the tribunal on the question of taking disciplinary action, and the matter was “ not by as much as a single phrase ” discussed by the tribunal. “These submissions are lost in the ether,” he said. The speaker added that he believed if the council took the case to the Supreme Court by declaratory judgment, the action taken by the tribunal on Saturday morning would in his opinion be cast aside. .“The Government took over the final steps in this unfortunate and unnecessary strike,” he said. The council in its centennial year had received an affront “ which we and other thinking citizens will not very much appreciate nor very readily forget. I am glad that the strike is over,” he added. "Still another affront” to the city was mentioned by Cr Hayward, seconding the proposal for the adoption of the Transport , Committee’s reports. He referred to the reported statement by Mr P. G. Connolly, M.P., that “in the City Council as it is constituted at present there are those who are looking for industrial strife.” “I think we should ask Mr Connolly what he meant and who he meant,” said Cr Hayward. “ I don’t think we should let that go unchallenged.” “ Whatever our respective views may be, none of us can ever condone the action of the Dunedin tramwaymen in going on strike at 2 o’clock on a Monday afternoon with women and children away from their homes in town.” said Cr L. M. Wright. ' “ When one looks into the reasons for this strike, one wonders at the coincidence of the visit of Mr Jones, of Queensland, here the previous day.” he said. There had been no denials of the remarks attributed to three of the local members of Parliament at a meeting of the Tramwaymen’s Union. “We are accused of causing strife, and I think we may take the statement at the value it possesses, knowing where it came from,” he said. It was amazing, however, that the three members of Parliament had gone to the meeting arid encouraged the strikers against the advice of their own leader, the Prime Minister. “ I think there is something wrong inside—something wrong with the outlook of these men,” he said. They were supposed to represent the whole population of Dunedin, and it was amazing that they should go out and encourage a couple of hundred men who were inconveniencing all the public. “I think the public has tfyese three members of Parliament summed -up,” commented Cr L. J. Ireland. He congratulated Cr Anderson on his handling of the situation, and suggested that in future the engineermanager, in cases of a ■ similar type, should consult the Transport Committee and council before taking action. There was lawful machinery in existence for the settling of disputes, and both sides should observe its presence.