TRAMWAY DISPUTE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 213, 3 May 1932, Page 5

TRAMWAY DISPUTE

(Press. Assn.-

STRIKE AT CHRISTCHURCH NOW CONSIDERED UNAVOIDABLE VICTIMISATION ALLEGED

-By Telegraph — Copyright).

CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. A tramway strike in Christchurch is unavoidable unless there is a lastminute change of front by the Tramway Board or its traffic staff. A meeting of the two parties this afternoon .^erved only to widen the breaeh and the men have declared that they will not take the cars out of the sheds on Wednesday morning. The employees have been as'ked to hand in their equipment to-morrow night and will be dismissed from ""he service. It is understood that the Minister for Unemployment, the Rt. Hon. J„ G. Coates, has made representations to both parties, while the board understands that the decision to strike was reached on a small majority and after a show of hands. The secretary of the union, Mr. E. Snow, declared that a secret ballot was taken on Sunday. The reason for the threatened strike, it is alleged, is not primarily the men's objection to rationing. They claim that the 12 men dismissed have been victimised. These men include one with 17 years' service and the majority have between seven and twelve years' service. The union states that they are being dismissed because of their "activities in the industrial or political fields" or because "they opposed the just punishment inflicted by the board's officials," The president of the union, Mr. J. Mathieson, is one of the dismissed men. Meetings of the union will be held to-day. At present it is intended to confine the dispute to the traffic men in the tram service, but the bhard, evidently fearing that the strike may involve the whole service, has ad_ vertsied for men for all branches of work. ii '