RAIILWAY SETTLEMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3392, 23 January 1920, Page 6

RAIILWAY SETTLEMENT.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF

TRANSPORT.

LONDON, Jun. 20. The Minismr of Transport, in a speech at Cambridge upon the railway settlement, declared that if the men had not accepted the recent tentative agreement they would have struck the severest blow possible at the principle of collective bargaining with trades unions. The settlement. repn-se:H.r.-d permanent. increases in the railwaymen’s wages bill from the pre-war rates of forty-seven millions to one hundred and ten millions sterling, namely an increase of 12-; per cent, notwithstanding any fall in the cost of living. This increase represented the estimated additional cost of nailwaymen’s wages due to improved rate, hours, and conditions of service. As the cost of living fell, railway costs fell, which reductions, coupled to economies through unified management, should reduce expenditure which caused the recent increased rates. ‘He believed the railway could, despite the new permanent wages bill, return to a level wliich would onable trade to thrive izzml compete in the w-or-ld’s n=.arl;et without Lvnfzue handicap. He had been assured by the men ’s leaders that the managenlent could henceforth expect. closer cooperation from the workers. This should release the management from the considCl'atiOll of amending wages disputes, enabling proper attention to be paid to economical and efficient management of their lines, which would have a direct money result.