NO CONFIDENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19785, 8 March 1927, Page 7

NO CONFIDENCE

LEADERS ASKED TO RESIGN RAILWAY EMPLOYEES’ WRANGLE [ Per Press Association. ] AUCKLAND, March 7. A crowded meeting of the Engine Drivers, Firemen and Cleaners’ Association at Franklin unanimously passa resolution expressing indignation at the finding of Mr E. Pago, S.M., in the trouble connected with tho control of the Association and resolved to do all in their power to preserve the union intact. They have no confidence in Mr Lewin as president and Mr McArley as secretary and call on them to resign and face the members. They view witli disgust the methods adopted to depost Mr Carroll and pledge themselves solidly to support him in any action no may take. They call on all branches and executive councils to demand a full meeting of delegates at the conference to bring finality to the business, and express full confidence in tho executive council and ask them to carry on until the grand council meets.

Allegedly the trouble arose over the old question of dual control, each side contending that it alone had the right to approach the Minister for Railways on matters affecting the welfare of the Association e

It is ind&resting to note that there are in existence now four distinct societies of railway employees, each of which negotiates with the Railway Department with regard to matters directly affecting its members. The four societies are the Railway Officers’ Institute, which represents, it is understood, over 90 per cent, of the members belonging to that branch of the First Division. The second society is th e Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the A.S.R.S. representing a large proportion of the outdoor staff, exclusive of the running men and a group of work-shop tradesmen. The third unit is the Engine-drivers’, Firemen, and Cleaners’ Association, the E.F.C.A., which is representative of those men whose duties are carried on under that title, while the fourth body is the Railway Tradesmen’s Association, the 8.T.A., recently instituted as a medium for bringing the claims of the skilled tradesmen in the service before the Minister.

Mr McArley is the secretary to the EP.C.A.) and became its first official in that capacity on its inception in 1908. Mr B. Carroll, the present president of the E.F.C.A., has served since 1920. w Never since Mr McArley’s election to the general secretaryship in 1908, has his re-election been challenged. There is now a contest as between ex-officio mmbers of the committee, and the question in dispute has been as to who is to hold th e supreme authority in connexion with the executive work of the Association —the secretary or the president.