PASSIVE RESISTANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1920, Page 1

PASSIVE RESISTANCE

EXASPERATING KIND OF AUSTRALIAN STRIKE.

J SYDNEY, March Id. We have in- Australia every kind of ; strike to which injustice, human in- | genuity, or sheer cussedness can give i form. There is the craft strike, in which only the men iu one particular industry refuse work; there is the one big union strike, in which the men in allied trades are drawn in; there :s the syndicalist strike, which aims at the complete paralysis of all industrial aetivity; there is the strike on tho job in which the men “go through all the motion” of working, but waste fime by every means they can think of; and so on. A new form of strike may bo termed “obeying tho regulations” strike, and it has made its appearance

! in certain public services. I The employees of the suburban elecI trie trains in that part of Melbourne south of the Yarra are using the new i weapon. They had a sharp dispute with their employers about the type of magnetic brake in use. They had a seven notch brake, and the authorities deemed it dangerous, insomuch that it .allowed the tram to be stepped with such suddenness as to throw the vehicle off the rails and endanger tho passengers. .So a four-notch brake was substituted. The employers’ demand for the seven-notch was refused. So the tram men began a rigid observance of the regulations. There is a regulation which says that a tram must not come down a grade faster than it went up and that its speed on a curve shall lie so and so. These regulations were not

observed literally—it was a coni promise between theory and common ien.se —but now they are. Result, a complete disorganisation of the timetables 'll)ere is another regulation which says that passengers must not stand on the footboards, and it was more honoured in the breach than otherwise. These suburban services cannot carry thcrowds comfortably in rush hours, and | some latitude: had to be allowed. Now the tram men refuse to move the ear so long as anyone remains on the footboard. Result, a further disorganisation of the timetables, and great inconvenience suffered hy the public. The honours of war so far are completely with the tram men, and ihe employers are now making frantic tfforts to settle.

Anyone who lias tried to use a telephone in Sydney during; the last few months will know that there is an “obey the regulations” strike on in the Sydney telephone exchange. The employees made certain demands upon the Department which were refused, wheic- ■ upon the employees decided to attend to only the regulation .number of calls ■ per hour, instead of their average, I which was nearly double. As a result of the extreme leisureliness of tile attendants methods, an attempt to use the ’phone frequently here proves a short cut to madness. It is a howling scandal—and yet Sydney has suffered it calmly for months. Sydney will ‘taut anything like that, however.