E.F.C.A. DEMANDS.

Wairarapa Age, 5 April 1928, Page 3

E.F.C.A. DEMANDS.

COST TO STATE £32,000. PREMIER’S QUESTION. A full report of the recent negotiations between the E.F.C.A. and the Minister of Railways (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates) in reference to the association’s request for increases in pay, published in the “New Zealand Locomotive Engineers' Journal,” shows that the estimated cost of the increases asked Was about £32,000. In replying to the depuatio'n, the Minister said they could not give increases at present unless they could see what they were going to get in return. Wage comparisons between Australia and New Zealand had been worked out on several occasions, and the men here did not compare very unfavourably with those in the Commonwealth. Immediately the increases asked for were granted the railway tradesmen would make the same demands. The position was that the Department had to examine every penny piece. “We are not riding on the top of a wave, ” he said. ‘‘ We are fighting for our very existence, not only from the point of view of the railways; but it applies to the position generally. Our whole national system of finance is un- ' dergoing a very severe strain and that, no doubt, makes one very ‘cautious, and my colleagues, I feel, think the same way. We already have under consideration many schemes which involve—we do not know what sum exactly—probably half a million pounds , in order to find work for men who at the present time arc unable to obtain work. In addition to that we have | commitments to local bodies and coI operation on the part of our community to meet what is a very serious position. You, I am certain, are acquainted with all these facts. I cannot get this out of my mind—that so far as the railwaymen are concerned there is only one point of view they take, and it is—’What do we get out of it?’ Therefore, I ask you to take the very widest view of the position.”