THE WELLINGTON TRAM STRIKE

Southland Times, Issue 17003, 29 March 1912, Page 6

THE WELLINGTON TRAM STRIKE

UNION EINED £IOO, (Per United Press Association;. ' WELLINGTON, March 28. Recollection of the tramway .strike was revived in the Magistrate's Court to-day, when the Wellington Tramway Employees’ Union was proceeded against by D. Carmody (Inspector of Awards), for a penalty of £2OO for a breach of section G of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. The allegation was that the Union had instigated an unlawful strike at a time when members of the body were bound by an industrial agreement, dated 27th November, 1911, Mr Carmody said that on or about 19th December considerable friction had existed between the Union and a member of the Corporation staff, Inspector Fuller. Representations had been made by the Union to the City Council for the removal of Fuller from contact with the men. He believed that in the first instance the Tramway Committee of the Council had agreed that Fuller should be removed; but they had afterwards rescinded the resolution to that effect, and on or about 2Tth December matters had reached a deadlock, and remained so till 21st January. When the cars had been stopped on the morning of the 31st of January, the only official intimation received by the Council or the electrical engineer was a short note to the effect that the cars would be held up from 2 o'clock that afternoon. ,The cars were taken to the sheds and traffic was entirely suspended till the night of nth February. The inconvenience caused to the public was very great. By the strike the men lost 1593 in wages, and the City Corporation approximately £I2OO. There was not the slightest doubt that the men struck with the sole object of having Inspector Fuller removed from bis position, and they were successful in their endeavours. As to the strike Itself, it had to be said on behalf of the men that they had conducted themselves decorously. Mr Sutherland (secretary of the Union) pleaded guilty to the charge. The strike was not, he said, brought on by the men as a joke. They were forced into the matter. For over eighteen months, ever since Fuller’s entry into the service, they had had nothing but trouble to put up with, and they had been put to considerable expense in defending cases before the Appeal Board. The Union admitted that inspectors were necessary in such a service as the tramways; but they held that there were two ways of doing the work of an inspector—a right way and a wrong way. Fuller always took the course opposite to the right way. The men joining the service here did not got the protection in the nature of their employment that they were entitled to. He reminded His Worship that the Tramways Committee had decided to suspend Fuller, but- that determination had been subsequent!? rescinded. So far as the Union's part in the affair was concerned, he declared that it had not gone.as far as other unions of a like kind had in Auckland, and Capetown. They simply asked for the removal of the Inspector to another branch of the service and not for his dismissal. The men did not strike in a moment of anger; they thought the matter over for months and months. The cars were not left in the streets, but were put in the sheds, and the loss occasioned had been greater to the men than it had been to the Corporation. During the period of the strike, except that the cars were not running, no one would have known that a strike was in progress. He referred to the Auckland case, where a penalty of £7.7 . had been Imposed, and the' Board laid it down that any inspector found guilty of making unfounded charges against an employee should he instantly dismissed. In this case he pleaded that the fine made as light as possible. Dr McArthur said lie was pleased to hear what iiad been said regarding the conduct of the men: but the offence committed was a very serious one. A case of a similar kind in connection with the Merchant Service Guild had recently come under his notice, and, without going into the merits of this case, he thought that if lie treated the Tramway Union in the same way as he had the Guild he would he getting as near the ends of justice as he possibly could. The Union would be fined £} 00. He was sorry to do this; but there was another way of going about the matter, and if the Union had followed the course in question it would have been much wiser.