LABOUR UNREST

Wairarapa Daily Times, 3 May 1937, Page 5

LABOUR UNREST

STRIKE OF BUSMEN • MANY COUNTIES AFFECTED. ■Press Association Electric Telegraph—Cooyrighi LONDON, Saturday. The London bus strike started at midnight last night. Simultaneously, 120,000 provincial busmen were called on to cease work in support of the strike, which already has affected 10 counties. Except for strikers' outside garages cat-calling and booing the drivers of hamcars, the first morning of the strike avas uneventful, though scarcely so for regular patrons, who had to fight to get places on the packed trams. Many had to trudge to the nearest railways, while thousands walked or cycled to work. Taxi-cabs reaped a harvest. Five thousand buses, carrying 5,000,000 passengers daily, are involved. Representatives of the busmen discussed the possibility of sympathetic action with representatives of the. tramwaymen, trolly-bus workers, . and tube workers. It is understood that the tubes will not be involved at present unless the buses are manned by volunteers. The Minister of Labour, Mr Ernest Brown, has appointed a court of enquiry, consisting of three members under the Industrial Courts Act to enquire into all aspects of the dispute. The men’s delegates met on Friday and heard a detailed report of the negotiations on their claim for a 7J-hour day in view of the recent speeding up of the time schedules, and subsequently confirmed the decision to cease work. The Transport Board maintains that the claim is not substantiated, and, while it is ready to accept a public enquiry, declares that the finances of the board are unable to meet it. REMARKABLE MIDNIGHT SCENES. MANY PEOPLE STRANDED. (Received Monday, 9.40 a.m.) . LONDON, Sunday. The presence of Cup tie crowds, combined with the usual crush of Londoners, led to remarkable scenes in London at midnight. Crowds, relying on the tube railways for getting home in the absence of buses, found the stations already blocked and trains packed. Many were stranded on the platforms when the last trains departed, and sought taxis in vain. These were all engaged, and thousands of people had a long tramp home. All those possessing cars used them to go to , the theatres, resulting in unprecedented traffic blocks when audiences poured into the streets again. COAL STRIKE CALLED. BY BRITISH FEDERATION. LONDON, Saturday. A special delegate conference of the Mine Workers’ Federation of Great Britain called a national coal strike for 22nd May, following the breakdown of negotiations on alleged victimisation at the Haworth colliery and on the question of union recognition in the Nottinghamshire coalfield. On 20th April it. was announced that in a national ballot the miners, by 444,546 votes to 61,446, had empowered they federation to resort to national strike action in the event of failure in these negotiations. • CONFERENCE FALLS. >. \ __ (Received Monday, 11.20 a.m.) RUGBY, Saturday. The Mines Department officials were in conference for several hours with representatives of the owners, the Mine Workers’ Federation, and a rival Nottinghamshire union, which alone had been recognised by the owners since 1926, but- no settlement was reached in time to prevent the decision of the miners’ delegate conference to tender notices. —-British Wireless.