FREEZING DISPUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 12

FREEZING DISPUTE.

MINISTER'S ACTIONS, CONDITIONS OF MEN'S RETURN REPLY TO CRITICISM. i (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. A denial that legislation had been offered to the Auckland freezing workers if they abandoned their stay-in tactics and returned to work was made by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, this evening, when he replied to the statement issued by the Canterbury Employers' Association. The statement contained the assertion that the Minister had promised legislation, "I do not know what the source of their information is," the Minister said, "but I am sure the conclusions they arrived at could not be obtained from anything I said or did. The suggestion that the employers in the freezing industry only agreed to pay the increase under the Minister's direction, because they gathered from my threats that worse things might happen po them, could only emanate from someone who would stoop to any depth to discredit a Labour Minister. If that is not the reason for it, then it must have emanated from a diseased mind. "In what other way," the Minister asked, "would they suggest that I should have handled the dispute ? My first move was to get the men out of the works and back to their occupation, which I succeeded in doing. Was there anything wrong about that? Or would they suggest that I should have allowed, them to remain in the works and allow the thing to spread throughout the country? Is that what they wanted? Move for Conference. "My next move was to request, and not force, the parties to the dispute to meet me in conference. That was readily agreed to. I presided at the conference myself, because it was the unanimous wish of the representatives of the workers and employers that I should do so. We went thoroughly into the position in the conference, which lasted for two pretty long days. In the end both parties agreed to my proposal, or direction, whatever they like to call it, but both sides were well aware of the fact that there was nothing in the law to compel them to accept my direction. "In the first place I directed the workers' representatives to forgo their claim to a 40-hour week until the termination of the existing award. I also directed them to forgo their claims to increased rates for pieceworkers, but I did say there was an unanswerable case made out for an increase in the rates of hourly workers, and I directed accordingly. Both parties agreed to accept that. . Action Not Uncommon. "It is not an uncommon thing for a Minister to invite parties to come together. I believe that exactly the same thing has happened under every Minister of Labour in the last 30 years. It is no uncommon thing to approach employers to secure the removal of anomalies that may have crept into an award. These things are going on every day in the week." 'Ihe statement that he had promised the workers amending legislation if they returned to work was strenuously denied by the Minister. "Who told the Canterbury Employers' Association that I told the workers, or anyone else, that if thev went back to work I would amend the award?" he asked. "No such statement was made by me, and the Employers' Association knows quite well that no such statement was ever made by me. certainly not as a condition for men to go back to work. "Whatever alteration may or may not be necessary in the law or in the awards has not been considered by me, or by the Government itself. If any threats were made at all—and I am not in the habit of doing anything of the kind— or any force used by me, it was to use all the force at my command to make those fellows go back to work, and I was up against very strong opposition.'' The Minister said he had been reported in Auckland as having said that he wanted to do away with the Arbitration Court. He had his speech recorded by a very fast stenographer, and the record showed that he said he wanted to do away with the system that made the Arbitration Court and other tribunals necessary.