MANGAKINO STRIKE TO GO TO TRIBUNAL

Grey River Argus, 9 April 1948, Page 3

MANGAKINO STRIKE TO GO TO TRIBUNAL

Government To Present Its Case Fully PA. WELLINGTON, April 8. The Mangakino dispute will be referred to a tribunal for settlement, and the hearing may begin on Tuesday next. Making this announcement, Ht. Hon. P. Fraser said that the Government, as employer, was prepared to submit its action in the Mangakino transfer and its full case in support of that action to the tribunal. The workers had agreed to the setting up of a tribunal. , , . , “Statements had been made, which can be construed as meaning that the transfer of Mr. Clapham. who was, at the time, Secretary of the local branch of the New Zealand Workers’ Union from Mangakino to '•Auckland--still in the employment of the Works Department—without any semblance of sacrifice on his part, was victimisation because of his secretarial activities,” said Mr. Fraser. “The Government is convinced that there has not been the slightest trace of victimisation in connection with the transfer. There has been no case of victimisation of any union official or member of the Public Works, or elsewhere in Government employment, during the whole period, over twelve years, of the Government administration.” Mr. Fraser added that the Cabinet did not agree that the occupancy of a Union officer’s position gave the occupant a licence to interfere with the smooth working of a job, to stir up antagonism to the engineers responsible for carrying on the job, and to pinprick and irritate engineers, overseers and foremen, and to publish sneers at, and insults, to P 1 occupying positions of responsibility on the works. The Government insisted that such deliberate, malicious hostility and stirring up of strife, where established, could not be tolerated. When, he said, such actions had an ulterior motive, they were a menace to the country as well as to any particular job, and must be terminated. Mr. Fraser said that it was only fair to state that the New Zealand Workers’ Union had, throughout the years, co-operated with the Minister of Works to the great advantage, both of the men employed on the Public Works and of the administration of the public welfare. It was hoped that, as was customary in such disputes, normal work, as prior to the stoppage, would be resumed at Mangakino on Monday.