STRIKE THREAT

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22245, 14 January 1944, Page 2

STRIKE THREAT

BUS DRIVERS SEVEN-DAYS ULTIMATUM NO BUSES ON SUNDAY (By Telegraph.—Preaa Association) AUCKLAND, Friday No buses will run within a 25miles radius of the Auckland Chief Post Office next Sunday. If within seven days from today the dispute between the Auckland omnibus drivers and the proprietors concerning double time for Sunday work is not settled, all buses with the 25miles radius will cease running. If the section of the Drivers’ Union within the area covered by the Government’s deregistration order is not re-registered by the Government within 10 days a further stop-work meeting joi Auckland drivers will be called. These three ultimatums were given by a stop-work meeting of the union held in the Auckland Town Hall this morning, attended by about 1500 drivers. The meeting was the latest development in the bus drivers’ dispute. At one stage of the meeting a motion was proposed for a general drivers’ Strike starting next Sunday, but this was defeated in favour of a more moderate amendment covering bus drivers only. During the two-hour period when the meeting was in progress only trucks driven by owner-drivers were on the roads or streets of Auckland. About 70 buses were lined up at the transport terminal. Outside the Town Hall there were hundreds of trucks and delivery vans. About a dozen women drivers were among those who attended the meeting, which was presided over by the president of the union, Mr E. Taylor, and was briefly addressed also by the union secretary, Mr L. G. Matthews, and the union organiser, Mr F. D. Muller. .The meeting was marked by severe criticism of the action of the Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, regarding the dispute. Mr Webb is in Australia for the Canberra conference on the future of the Pacific.