RAILWAY INSURANCE BILL

Te Aroha News, 15 February 1890, Page 3

RAILWAY INSURANCE BILL

BILL BITTERLY CONDEMNED.

Mr F. J. Moss, M.H.R., presided over the meeting of railway employees of the Auckland section just held to take into consideration the mooted Railway Insurance Bill as proposed by the Railway Commissioner s'Of the colony!. There was a full attendance, and a delegation of severa members of the Trades, and Labour Council ' V The P dilcussion on the proposed Bill was very animated, and much indignation at the provffions of the measure , and the way it was put before the railway men found freely. Great unanimity of feeling was shown throughout,.everyone present was snown on being more or without n 5p p 0 to- the Bill. The less sbrengy H b itterly condemned as measure was £ fcQ interfere un duly tendings f or on Sy with tbe domestic a ff - Tnf the employees. “We get a affairs of as employees,” said one certain w f wb ich we do a certain speaker, an d tbe Commissioners’ amount oflaDOu v fco end wheD that position asm The prop osal to labour ghillin! r S per week from stop, bare . with no reasonable offered, and- the’ prospect of

losing the lump sum at the end of several years’ service, was characterised as most tyrannical. Objection was taken to the. “ open ” manner in which the voting for or against the Bill was to be done. Many speakers opposed the Bill in toto , contending that its operation would simply be to make the men bond-servants. The following resolution was put and carried unanimously :—“ That the railway employees of the Auckland section protest against the introduction of the Railway Insurance Bill once and for all,- and pledge themselves to unanimously vote against it.” The Trades and Labour Council delegation present then gave in the following resolution, which Pad been passed by them at the Council’s last meeting : members of the Auckland Trades and Labour Council wish to place on record their disapproval of the unfair, un-English action of the Commissioners in endeavouring to force such a Bill as the proposed one on the railway employees, directly interfering with their social arrangements.” The resolution was received with approbation. During the discussion the whole subject of the Bill was brought well under consideration, and almost every clause was utterly condemned. Several speakers expressed the opinion that after some years’ service the railway employee could not dare to speak a word, for the Bill gave the Commissioner and his under-servants power to forfeit all the wages that had been stepped Irom the men’s weekly pay for whatever they might choose to call insubordination or misconduct.