Railway Dispute

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23113, 30 January 1945, Page 4

Railway Dispute

DECAUSE patience and good sense prevailed among the majority of railway workers in the Dominion, the partial strike which threatened last week to disorganise the country’s transport system did not spread as some misguided malcontents hoped it would. The strikers had no justification for their action, and they certainly had nothing to gain from it. The strike could not hasten the decision of the Railways Industrial Tribunal, and direct action could not •influence the Goverhment, for it harf placed the question of revising the wage schedules of railway workerV'uhreservedly in the hands of the Tribunal.

Now that one unhappy phase of the dispute has been closed, it is possible to look at the issue in other ways. It may well be that last week’s demonstration of militancy will impress the Government, if not the tribunal, and it cannot be said that the tribunal is working under the best conditions when railway workers have made it plain that they intend to take direct action if the findings of the tribunal are displeasing. A member of the National Executive of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants told a meeting in Greymohth at the weekend that the executive would call a general strike should the findings of the tribunal not be satisfactory. The men, therefore, intend to be judges of their own cause. The Tribunal is certain to make what it considers to be fair wage adjustments, but its decision will automatically become a standard for other branches of the Government service. Workers’ claims conceded as just by the Railways Industrial Tribunal cannot be resisted by the Government when they come from other groups of State employees. While many sections of the State service are entitled to wage increases under present conditions, it can be easily seen that the testing time is at hand for the Government’s stabilisation policy. The greatest danger is that if the upward wage movement becomes general, the benefits of increased wages may be lost by those in most urgent need of assistance. Rising wages would involve the Government in many forms of new expenditure which would have to be met from the pockets of the people.