TRAMWAY STRIKE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 131, 3 May 1940, Page 8

TRAMWAY STRIKE

AUCKLAND INCONVENIENCED. BY MEN’S ACTION. Per Press-Association. AUCKLAND, May 1. The second day of the tramway “go-slow” strike produced a general traffic situation quite as chaotic as that of Tuesday, any apparent improvement being due to the tact that a considerable body of those who would have been shoppers did not travel. Further, many people having been forewarned mode other than tramway arrangements. Although some of the last trams of Tuesday hurried back to the depot to enable their crews to make a more expeditious homegoing than thc3' had given the public, the outgoing fleet of the morning resumed its leisurely way. While no doubt the majority of the men were in full co-operation with the makers of the “go-slow” tactics, no motorman, however much he might desire to do his duty, could be a free man if on his roufe there was a single train which slowed down throughout the day. On every route the pace was cut seriously, perhaps by general action, perhaps by the action of a few trams. Thus it came about that as many as eight Onehunga trams could be seen in Queen Street at one time. It was noticeable that often two or three trams for the same distant terminus ran in sequence in the city. Incoming workers used taxis by groups, and in scores of cases private motor-cars, some of which had had little running in recent days on account of petrol restrictions, gathered up waiting people. On the shorter routes many people walked. On both days of the strike the normal fleet of trams was put into service, hut on neither day did the public receive more than 50 per cent, of the normal service. The earnings on Tuesday were 16 per cent, less than the average of the four previous Tuesdays. Because of the increased use of motorcars and the fact that shopping traffic was greatly reduced to-day the drop in the earnings was higher. There was no approach to-day between tlie union and the hoard, and .there was a feeling throughout the city that a higher labour power than the union may attempt to take charge of that side of the dispute. However, there is no information on that subject.