Tram-Men in, Club

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 663, 15 May 1929, Page 8

Tram-Men in, Club

ON AND OFF THE JOB

TRAMWAYMEN who belong to the Tramways Union in Auckland have registered a protest because no appeal in ten years has been granted a union member. The appeal board is seldom called upon, however, and the men are so well organised that, speaking generally, they constitute probably the happiest family of workers in the city.

The Auckland transport service costs the people in running charges something like £600,000 a year. It absorbs 1,250 men—the largest employment group In the city—and the wages bill is over £338,000. Of this wage account £269,500 is absorbed by tram motormen and conductors and drivers of city buses. The wage sheet, in fact, represents 62 per cent, of the total operating costs of the system. It Is a coincidence that the protest from the men—those at least who are represented by the union—should have come at this time, because tbe wages and conditions are to be reviewed shortly when a new award of tbe Arbitration Court will be framed. Generally speaking, little complaint is heard from the “trammies,” largely because their own organisation —-the Tramways’ Club —has made their leisure moments pleasant, and because the management has assisted in their social activities. Moreover, the organisation embraces every man in the service, and leaves no room for disorganisation among the employees. Membership of the club is compulsory. A man who withdrew recently was compelled to leave the service. He appealed through the union and lost. COLONELS ON THE TRAMS The appeals against decisions of the management are rare, however, and the appeal board, comprising tbe chief magistrate for the district, the secretary of the union, and the chairman of the Transport Board, has been called upon only about once a year during the past ten years to hear complaints. Tbe trams attract a variety of types. Colonels in tbe army, insurance clerks, bank officers, farmers and men from many other departments of life are now opening and shutting the stopcocks in the stream of Auckland’s travelling public every morning and evening. Whether the attraction is the comparatively high average wage over the service, the congenial conditions, or the peaceful atmosphere enveloping the whole of the group, it is difficult to explain, but it is certain that in club the men c;n forget that a bus costs Is 3d a mile to run and a tram 7-Bths Of a penny, and that every day every bus on the run travels ISO miles. No one worries that in every three

months, every bus uses a set of six tyres costing just on £IOO. and absorbs daily 13 gallons of petrol. The benefits of the club are far greater than those coming from the average frendly society. For a contribution of Is lOd a week, a man receives free hospital for himself and his wife and for children under 15, £1 10s a week while he is off work, and sundry other benefits. If he dies his wife receives £ls0 —not thrown at her indiscriminately, but allocated according to the best manner iu which she can use it. Under this system just on £50.000 has been distributed in benefits during the past five years. Much of the success of the institution is due to the secretary of the club, Mr. S. M. Farrelly, who has occupied the position for 25 years. During last year the transport management contributed £1,750, which represented a quarter of 1 per cent, of the total takings of the concern. UNION'S PROTEST In registering its protest against the attitude of the appeal board toward the men, the union stated last week that it desired an amendment to the Tramways Act providing for the variation of the chairmanship of the appeal board from the chief magistrate of the city, should such a course be considered necessary. It asks, also, that the whole question be investigated with a view to placing it on a basis more satisfactory to the men. In support of this request, the Minister of Public Works is to be interviewed when he is next in Auckland. Nothing is likely to be done, however, until after the men’s conditions have been reviewed in light of the new award. Whatever the result of this review, it is unquestioned that the greatest factor in holding the “trammies’ together is the club, of which every man is a member. But for an organisation of this character, a big group of workers is liable to fall to pieces of its own weight. Five billiard tables, a cosy cafe and a general store go far toward keeping the men together and making them happier in serving the moving population of Auckland.