HOME RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1920, Page 5

HOME RAILWAYS.

THE NEW AGREEMENT, LARGE INCREASE IN WAGES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Jan. 21, 8.10 p.m. London, Jan. 20. The Minister of Transport (Sir Eric Geddes), 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 principles of collective bargaining with trades unions. The settlement represented permanent increases in the railwaymen's wages bill from the pre-war rates of £47,000,000 to £110,000,000, namely an increase of 134 per cent., notwithstanding any fall in the cost of living. This increase represented the estimated additional cost of the railwaymen's wages due to improved rates, hours and conditions of the service. As the cost of living falls the railway costs fall, which reductions, coupled to the economies through unified management, should reduce expenditure, which caused the recent increased ftttes. He believed that the railways could, despite the new permanent wages bill, return to a level which would enable trade to thrive and compete in the world's markets without an undue handicap. He had been assured by the men's leaders that the management could henceforth, expect closer co-opera-tion from workers. This should release the management from the consideration of unending wages disputes, enabling proper attention to be paid to the economical and efficient management of their lines, which would have a direct money result—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.