MOVE TO END DEADLOCK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 761, 6 September 1929, Page 1

MOVE TO END DEADLOCK

Transport Board and Union REINSTATEMENT OF MASSICKS ? THERE id reason to believe tliat a new development lias taken place in tlie deadlock between the Auckland Transport Board and the Tramwaymen’s and Omnibus Employees' Union.

It is understood that the union has made a conditional offer this morning to expunge the resolution, which is the cause of the trouble, in terms of the board’s demand. This offer is apparently made on condition that the management is prepared to reinstate Thomas Massicks, a permanent-way employee, who was dismissed, and whose appeal was rejected by Tramways Appeal Board. HOW THE TROUBLE AROSE The “Massicks Case” was the direct cause of the resolution to which the board takes exception. In that appeal six unionists had been willing to give evidence against Massicks (but were not called upon, the appeal having been dismissed on the union’s own evidence), and soon afterward the union passed the resolution, which “viewed with strong disapproval and apprehension the action of members lending their assistance to the management in cases taken up by the union.” That was in May last and a majority of the Transport Board passed a resolution calling upon the union to expunge the minute, which it declined to do, contending that the matter was purely a domestic affair, and that the board had no right to interfere.

A majority of the board held the minute to be improper in that it militated against the efficient working of the undertaking by engendering intimidation. PROPOSAL TO ARBITRATE Tlie next move by the board was a proposal that the parties should go to arbitration before Mr. Justice Blair. The union, however, refused, stating there was nothing to arbitrate about. Then, a month ago. the board decided to withdraw its assessors who were appointed to negotiate with the union’s assessors for a new agreement. The step amounted to a severance of relations. During the last three weeks both sides have aired their arguments in an animated Press controversy, which was concluded when the chairman of the Transport Board, Mr. J. A. C. Allum, once again appealed to the union to arbitrate upon the board’s demand for the recission of the resolution. WHAT MR. ALLUM SAYS Asked this morning what he knew of the reported move by the union, Mr. Allum said: “The board has received no further communication from the union about this unfortunate affair,” and added: “The board will not place an obstacle in the way of a settlement.”