WILL STOP WORK?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18, 23 January 1933, Page 3

WILL STOP WORK?

BAKERS' DISPUTE. ULTIMATUM TO EMPLOYERS. AGREEMENT EXPECTED. Members of the Auckland Operative Bakers and Pastry Cooks' Union, at a special meeting on Saturday night, drafted a schedule of alternative proposals for submission to the employers to-day. The workers have intimated to the employers that if the new proposals are not acceptable members of the union will stop work next Friday. As a precautionary measure, police have watched operations at Kent's Bakeries, Khyber Pass, since the trouble started. A reduction in the basic wage is proposed by the employers, and, on the other hand, the men are endeavouring to maintain a rate nearer the award payment, less the 10 per cent "cut" which has operated since 1931. One of the main points at issue was the payment of men working before 4 a.m. Under the award the men receive 5/ a shift, or 30/ a week, extra, less 10 per cent. The employers now seek to reduce the rate to a maximum of 2/ a shift, or 12/ a week. Now the men offer to work the hours before 4 a.m. for 10/ a week extra. They object to the lowering of the age of junior labourers to 10 years and to the complete elimination of annual holidays, which are included in the employers' new conditions. Conciliation Fails. Long discussions over the dispute were heard at the Conciliation Council at the end of last year. The employers proposed reductions, and negotiations were started in September. The Auckland bakers' award lapsed on December 11, but, although conciliation had failed, the employers agreed to carry on under the old award until after the holidays. A special meeting was held by the employers on January 11 and a schedule of working conditions was adopted. The conditions' were printed and forwarded to all employees and posted in bakehouses, as was customary with past awards. The new conditions were received in the bakehouses on January 13. The immediate outcome was the trouble at Kent's, Ltd., last week when bakers refused to work under the new conditions. The scale of wages and conditions being enforced by the employers provides for wages of £4 4/ a week for journeymen bakers for a 4 a.m. start, with an additional 6d an hour for each hour before that time, with a maximum of 2/ extra a shift. The ten-hour day is reintroduced and annual leave of eight days is to be cut out. It is also proposed to reduce the minimum age of junior labourers from IS years to 18 years, with a reduction of the award wage from £1 18/3 a week to £1 net a week. Jobbers are being reduced from 17/2 net to 15/ a day, and the preference clause is eliminated. Union's Proposals. The bakers' union has decided that it cannot accept these conditions, and as an alternative is suggesting the following scale of wages for a 4 a.m. start: Foremen, £5 a week; journeymen, £4 10/; adult labourers, £3 15/; junior labourers, to start at 18 years, £1 17/6. The union also agreed to offer to work the night shift, starting not earlier than midnight, for the payment of 10/ a week extra in all cases, to accept six days' holiday instead of eight, and to forgo the day for an annual picnic. Under the award which lapsed in December the scale of wages, after allowing for the 10 per cent "cut" of 1931, was as follows: Foremen, £4 19/; journeymen, £4 10/; adult labourers, £3 12/6; junior labourers (18 years), £1 18/3, with an additional 5/ a shift in each case for a start before 4 a.m. Eight days' annual holiday and an annual picnic were also allowed. The proposals affect about 120 men in the city area., said Mr. E. J. Watson, secretary of the Bakers' Union. Mr. Watson stated that the men realised that the times demanded some sacrifice, and this they had made in the offer which they had drafted. Their proposals had reached the absolute bedrock, below which they felt they could not go. "The majority of journeymen work overtime and will be able to earn about £5 10/ with night shift and overtime under the employers' terms," explained Mr. G. K. Matliieson, chairman of the Auckland Master Bakers' Association. He said the ten-hour day was a move principally for the relief of master bakers in a small way-of business. The trade was passing through a very difficult time. Unemployment and the consequent difficulty of collecting payments contributed to the troubles of the trade.