WORKSHOPS STRIKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1941, Page 6

WORKSHOPS STRIKE

MINISTER SPEAKS OUT CHALLENGE TO GOVERNMENT. WILL NOT BE TAKEN LYING DOWN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The opinion that the war regulations had been violated and ignored was expressed by the Minister of Railways. Mr Semple, when referring yesterday to the decision of the workers at the Hutt Railway Workshops to cease work. It was nothing more or less, he added, than a definite challenge to the Government. The men had ignored their own union, and chosen to take direct action and put a pistol to the Government's head. It was now the turn of the Government to take action, and it would not take this lying down. The workers had acted in opposition to the advice of their own officers, and in view of that they had to take all that was coming to them. Referring earlier to the men who refused work at the workshops on Saturday morning, and their suspension yesterday, Mr Semple said he was convinced that the trouble was caused by a handful of men whose views were tinged with a foreign philosophy. Mr Semple said that when he was advised of the position last week his instruction was that a notice be posted advising the men that if they did not turn up at work on Saturday morning, in conformity with the arrangement made before he became Minister of Railways, they would be suspended on the following Monday. The men therefore were warned. In spite of that, they refused to turn up and defied their own union officers who talked about the matter and advised them not to take action. Yesterday morning when the men concerned arrived at work they received the formal notice of suspension, and that stood.

GAUNTLET THROWN DOWN. “The men concerned have thrown down the gauntlet and issued the challenge,” said the Minister. “They ignored their own organisation; they took action without discussing the matter with even their president or secretary: thek took action while the General Manager of Railways and I were absent from this city on urgent business in the South Island. They definitely ignored every constitutional means.

“If the kind of conduct that has been adopted in this instance by the men is proper, then it will be the end of selfgovernment, the end of democracy, and the beginning of anarchy, which can ? only lead to chaos as it did in other s countries of the world. It is not going J to happen in New Zealand.” MINISTER BLAMED ‘ ATTITUDE STRONGLY RESENTED. 1,600 MEN CEASE WORK. WELLINGTON, This Day. The Hutt Railway Workshops were idle yesterday as the result of a decision by the employees to cease work and to remain away from work till the 280 men who were suspended for failing to report for duty on Saturday morning were reinstated. Approximately 1,600 men are affected by the decision. which was carried by a substantial majority during a lunch-hour meeting. A statement issued on behalf of the men said that those present were members of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and of the Railway Tradesmen’s Association. The delegates who had interviewed the national president and secretary’ of each organisation reported on the results of the interviews. They contended that the Minister of Railways, Mr Semple, had taken up an uncompromising attitude, though the men were prepared to stay in till a decision was reached on the question of the suspension of the 280 men. The Minister’s attitude was strongly resented by the meeting, the statement continued, and it was contended that there was no other al-

ternative but to accept the challenge thrown down by the Minister. On a vote being taken the men decided by a huge majority to cease work immediately. The local executives of both the A.S.R.S. and the R.T.A., the statement continued, considered that the full responsibility for any interruption in, the war effort rested entirely with the Minister, in so far as the men had gone to work yesterday morning prepared to work overtime hours but found tha£ 280 of their fellow-work-ers were refused admittance to their machines. The men had always shown their loyalty' and patriotism by voluntarily working long hours without the granting of overtime rates being considered by the department.

The executives also stated definitely that the Minister had been advised of the men's request for overtime rates, and his reply was contained in a letter received by the secretary of the R.T.A. on February 14. The letter read: "With reference to the representations made by the executive of your association at the interview on November 14, 1940. requesting that penal rates be paid for Saturday morning work, I wish to inform you that 1 while, it is regretted that at the present juncture the payment of penal rates for Saturday morning work cannot be granted. I have, as promised, looked into the question of the practicability of eliminating Saturday morning work in the .workshops. I find that under ordinary circumstances the necessity for workshops employees working on Saturday morning could be practically eliminated. As you are. however, aware, the workshops arc at present undertaking a considerable quantity of munition work which is necessarily of an urgent nature, and while Ihis obtains I am sorry to sav there appears to be little likelihood of Ihe elimination of Saturday morning work being given effect to.' The malter will, nevertheless, be kept in view, and you may rest assured, that Saturday morning work will be restricted so far as is reasonably practicable, consistent. of course, with the prosecution of the Dominion’s war effort."

MATTER FOR CABINET LINE OF GOVERNMENT'S ACTION. WELLINGTON. This Day. Replying to a question as to whether he proposed to invoke the emergency war regulations against the men who ceased work at the Hutt workshops, Mr Semple slated that he had not yet discussed the matter with his colleagues. It was a question for Cabinet to decide. He reiterated his opinion that a definite breach of the regulations had taken place and the matter was viewed very seriously by the Government.