DREDGE DISPUTE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 44, 2 December 1940, Page 3

DREDGE DISPUTE.

UNION SUPPORTS THE MEN. (Per Press Association). GREYMOUTH, [December 1. Tine opinion, tlxat the dismissal of 30 men at the Ngahere dredge last Monday constituted a- lockout was expressed at a large meeting of the Westland Gold Dredge Workers’ Union today and at a meeting of the West Coast Trades and Labour Council yesterday. The attitude of the men demanding payment for time lost since the dredge, closed 1 was unanimously supported by both bodies. Two hundred and thirty-four men attended the union meeting. They decided to localise the dispute in the meantime, but to open voluntary subscription lists on all the dredges to secure financial assistance for the men and families; It was also decided that no member of the union should accept employment at the Ngahere dredge until tho matters in dispute were settled.

The suggestion of Mr C. C ! . Davis (chairman of directors of the company) that the Ngahere dredge had been singled out for special treatment was emphatically: denied by the union, which decided to publicise- the fact that its policy since 1938 had been to take annual and statutory holidays as they fell due under the terms of the award, unless a mutual arrangement between the company and the union was entered into. The Trades and Labour Council decided to request the Minister for Labour (the Hon. P. C’. Webb) to visit Greymouth immediately to confer with the council and union.