RAILWAY BUS DRIVERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1943, Page 4

RAILWAY BUS DRIVERS

STRIKING FOR DOUBLE PAY ON SUNDAYS ACTION IN WELLINGTON AREA. AND POSSIBLY IN NAPIER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Because the Government has not granted a request for double rates of pay for Sunday work, the railway bus drivers in Wellington and possibly those in Napier will refuse to work tomorrow. . In a statement on the position this morning, Mr Morrison, secretary of the Railway Bus Drivers’ branch of the A.S.R.S., said that at the beginning of the week the men sent a deputation to Mr H. E. Combs, M.P., conveying the request. They were accompanied by Mr Lewis Mcllvride, General Secretary of the A.S.R.S. They gave the Department until noon on Friday to give a definite reply regarding double rates for Sunday work, bringing the bus drivers into line with other members of the A.S.R.S. Mr Morrison said today that no reply was received. He believed the Minister was out of town. A special meeting was held last night and it was decided not to work on Sunday until the request was granted, the decision coming into effect tomorrow. About 50 drivers are affected and the services concerned are all railway buses in the vicinity of Wellington and the Hutt Valley. It is understood that seven foremen of the bus service are being worked tomorrow to fill the breach.