TRAMWAY CRISIS EXTENDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 797, 18 October 1929, Page 1

TRAMWAY CRISIS EXTENDS

Alliance of Labour Active

“ATTEMPT TO SMASH UNION”

WHOLE-HEARTED support of the Trauiwaymen's and Motor Omnibus Employees’ Union in its dispute with the Transport Board was voiced at a meeting of the Auckland District Council of the Alliance of Labour last evening.

Mr. F. E. Martin, secretary of the district council, said the council was alarmed at the attitude of the Transport Board toward its employees, particularly in regard to wages. “We feel that the board’s policy is working in the direction of lower for its men, although salaried officers are being given inopportune increases. We think it a policy of undercutting the under dog.” The Alliance of Labour, which represents three-quarters of the workers of Auckland and which is recognised by the Government, has received the support of the national office of the alliance in Wellington in regard to its attitude toward the Auckland tramwaymen. Mr. James Roberts, secretary in Wellington, is being kept in touch with the happenings in this city. RESOLUTIONS CARRIED At its meeting last evening the district council passed the following resolutions after the tramwaymen’s case had been presented by the delegates of that union: (1) This council whole-heartedly supports the tramwaymen in their present dispute and urges the Local Body Labourers’ Union to refuse to be used by the Transport Board as a weapon against the tramwaymen.

Asked wliat the next move would be, Mr. Martin said the mass meetings of tramwaymen called for Sunday at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. would decide what action would be taken concerning the union’s relations with the Transport Board. “If the tramwaymen decide to ask the Alliance of Labour for active support it will be given/' Mr. Martin hinted.

(2) This council is of opinion that the Transport Board as trustee of the tramways undertaking had no authority to affiliate with the Employers’ Federation without the consent of the electors. Further, it regards the board’s action in endeavouring to employ men in the ’overhead and per-manent-way departments under the Local Body Labourers’ Award (who* have no provision in that award covering such work) as a system to smash the Tramway Union and at the same time decrease' the earning capacity of the rank and file, while increases are being made to highlypaid officials. The council fully supports the tramwaymen in any action they consider it necessary to take. (3) This council is of opinion that the tram men’s agreement mutually made between the parties and signed by Mr. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the then Tramways Committee of the City Council, and Mr. A. E. Ford, manager to the board, on the one part, and Messrs. J. J. Nixon and J. Liddell, for the union, on the other part, is such that, notwithstanding the expiration of the currency of the agreement, it shall continue in force until a new agreement has been duly entered into, and is binding on the board. The council expresses surprise that public men should repudiate an agreement to which their si'. matures are attached.