Minister Explains Conditions At The Roxburgh Undertaking

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 November 1950, Page 6

Minister Explains Conditions At The Roxburgh Undertaking

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Last Night (PA).—Although additional information h'ad since appeared in the newspapers, the contentions of the men at the Roxburgh hydro-electric works when the strike began were confined to two issues, said the Minister of Works (Mr Goosman) today.

The first was that houses were allegedly being held for* immigrant tradesmen while New Zealand workers were unable to obtain houses. The second was that the project engineer did not have delegated sufficient authority to make necessary decisions. This information was represented to senior departmental officers in Wellington by the national secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, said Mr Goosman, but only after he had received the following telegram: “Stopwork meeting this morning, resolutions of the local workers, we demand the presence of the Minister in Coal Creek within 48 hours or we stop work immediately expiry of this time.”

Mr Goosman said that after interviewing the national secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union he replied regretting that it was not possible for him to visit Roxburgh. He said any grievances which could not be solved by the project engineer should be constitutionally represented through the union headquarters. On November 14 he had replied that it was not correct that 40 houses were being held at Roxburgh for immigrants. It was true that a certain number of houses were being built for immigrant artisans, but these tradesmen were not expected before the end of January. It was the department’s policy that New Zealand artisans should receive priority over immigrants. It was expected that sufficient houses would be finished before the end of the year to accommodate all the applicants, and that further houses would be finished by the end of January, making it possible to accommodate both groups without undue delay. Mr Goosman said that at the date of this letter to the union there was no married applicant at Roxburgh who had been waiting for a house longer than three weeks, and several applications had been lodged only two days previously. The position today was that 17 houses would be finished this week with only 16 applicants to occupy them. There was, therefore, no housing problem at Roxburgh. It should be noted that the Initial housing preference to New Zealand artisans should not be permitted to encourage transfer of New Zealand artisans from other essential works, and that after the first appointment immigrant artisans would be treated on an equal footing with New Zealand artisans.

Mr Goosman said the question ot the authority of the project engineer was discussed at the interview with the national secretary. It was made clear that the responsibility for the works is that of the engineer-in-chief, who delegates responsibility in his discretion to his local representative, the project engineer. This was a basic principle from which there could be no departure. The Minister said it was understood that all this information was conveyed to the men from union headquarters before the strike decision was taken. Thus at the time of their resolution to strike, neither he nor his department had knowledge of any outstanding grievances.