The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1890. THE RAILWAY SERVANTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2063, 24 June 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1890. THE RAILWAY SERVANTS.

The dispute between the Eailway Servants and the Commissioners wears an ominous aspect at present We hope that a strike will be averted, but at the same time it appears that such a contengency is within the bounds of possibility. The delegates began by bringing the Commissioners to their knees by compelling them to acknowledge the Executive as the medium of intercourse with the servants. This was certainly a vital point gained, but it cost no money, and that is the great object the Commissioners have in view. They have not, however, been so successful in the terms they have received as regard boy labor, and hours of labor. On these two points the dispute is still unsettled. Ihe promises of the Commissioners are vague, and allow of a great many loopholes of escape; the delegates want definite undertakings, and this constitutes the breach. Ibe delegates say the service is over-run with boy labour at present, and want the Commissioners to guarantee they will take no more boys on for two years ; the Commissioners refuse to do this, but give the vague promise that they

will limit boy labor as far as possible. Ostensibly the Commissioners have agreed to 8 hours labor, but practically they have not as they say it would cost £50,000 a year to rigidly enforce the 8 hours system. 1 heir explanation is this: —There are several engine drivers, firemen, and guards who drive out to country stations in the morning and return in the evening, after having been absent 13 and 14 hours, but sometimes they have been as many as five and seven hours standing idle, and the Commissioners refuse to reckon this as time. The delegates, on the other hand, say the men’s time is their capital, and while they are standing idle at a wayside or terminus station away from home it is impossible for them to make anything of their time; They therefore must claim payment for it from those who keep them idle. These are the rocks on which the delegates and the Commissioners split, and it appears that there is a great deal to be said on both sides but that the weight of argument is in favor of the railway servants. In our opinion the best thing they could do is to split the difference, and this, so far as we can see, is the final offer made by the delegates to the Cn m . missioners. The delegates offered to make the time for engine-drivers, &c , 9 hours & day, with pay for overtime, and the Commissioners took time to consider it. Now, we think this is reasonable enough, and that it is a great blunder on the part of the Commissioners not to agree to it. Before making this concession the delegates offered to submit the whole dispute to arbitration, but the Commissioners refused, stating they were the arbitrators- So far as we can see the railway servants have behaved well, and if a strike takes place we feel satisfied that the Commissioners will be to blame for it. However, we do aofc think the strike will occur. The Commissiouers have blustered and bullied all along, and in the end submitted like lambs. In this we believe, too, they will submit, and then where will their retrenchment be ? Put in very plain simple language we owe all this to retrenchment. The Commissioners were appointed to cut down wages and run the railways cheaply, and only fee the union they would have done it. JNow, this is the point. It is the case of the biter bit, The retrenebers thought they would cut 1 down wages, but instead of that trades-unionism ig raising them. Retrenchment has undoubtedly brought trades-unionism into life and vigor. The insurance proposals, the boy labor, the plefip work, and the long hours were ail g. pwfr of the retrenchment scheme of the pvesa&typ (government, and the commissioners have only been mere tools of the higher power; The commissioners must yield; they cannot afford s strike, and that means £50,000 additional taxation, (phjg is how retrenchment is panning out.