NO STOPPAGE OF TRAMWAYS

Southland Times, Issue 23796, 19 April 1939, Page 4

NO STOPPAGE OF TRAMWAYS

DISPUTE SETTLED IN DUNEDIN EXTENSION OF 12-MINUTE SERVICE (United Press Association) DUNEDIN, April 18. A dispute that arose between the members of the Dunedin Tramway Men’s Union and the City Council has been amicably settled following a conference between the parties this morning. The conference was one of some duration but all the points at issue were fully discussed and all misunderstandings removed. The conference was characterized by the best of feeling on both sides. The final outcome of the conference was that the 12-minute service instituted on the St. Clair-Normanby and Anderson’s Bay-Gardens routes would be extended to 15 minutes. By the adoption of this altered schedule the council would still continue to economize in running costs. The alteration to the running of cars on those lines would come into operation on Thursday week. The council had given the union officials a definite guarantee to make every endeavour not to dismiss any of the staff. If, after making every endeavour to retain its present staff, it found that it could not do so, the council had further agreed not to dispense with the services of any employees without first holding a conference with the union.

A stoppage of all the city trams was threatened for 9 o’clock last evening following a dispute over the new time-table, but at the last moment the union intimated that the stop-work meeting had been abandoned as the Tramways Committee would meet the men this morning. . It is understood a delicate situation was averted as the result of departmental intervention. During the afternoon Mr J. L. Hunter, of the Labour Department, Wellington, arrived by aeroplane conveying a message from the Minister (the Hon. P. C. Webb), that the Government would view gravely any persistence in the intention to strike, but the Government was prepared to do what it could for the men. The union’s grievance was that the new service was too fast, the increased motor traffic preventing the cars running to time and also giving no spare time between runs and cutting down the meal-time.