MASS MEETING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 281, 26 November 1943, Page 4

MASS MEETING

BUILDING WORKERS TROUBLE OVER ORDER The largest stop work meeting ever held in New Zealand was attended by 4500 men associated with the building trade, who' met in the Auckland Town Hall to-day to discuss what was claimed to be a cut in wages of an average of 15/ a week. Both the Town Hall and the concert chamber had to be used to accommodate me men, and in the concert chamber a loud-speaker was used. Mr. F. Craig, who is president of the Auckland Trades Council of the Federation of Labour and secretary of the New Zealand Timber Workers' Union, presided, and a report was presented to the meeting by Mr. R. Stanley, honorary secretary of the Auckland District Council of the New Zealand Building and Allied Trades Federation. At the close of the meeting, which lasted about two hours, the following official statement was issued: — "It was decided by a large majority that, in view of the fact that the war necessitated the continuation of production, no strike action should be taken in the meantime, in spite of the deep dissatisfaction prevailing. It was resolved that the workers' representatives, Messrs. R. Stanley and F. Craig, continue negotiations at present being carried out with the Government, and that another stopwork meeting be held on the Saturday morning of next week to hear their report. Although the dispute directly affects only essential building workers, all workers in the industry are indirectly concerned. "The dispute particularly concerns those engaged on essential building, who are covered by a special Government order. About 15 months ago an arrangement was entered into in Auckland, whereby defence construction workers should be paid fares between their homes and the job on which they were employed, except one tram section, arid that the time spent in travelling between a specified central point. Symonds Street, and the job should be paid for at ordinary wage rates. This was a compensation for men forced by manpower regulations to travel long distances to their work, which is usually a long distance from the city

Special Clause "When the Essential Building Works Modification Order replaced the Defence Construction Order last June, the Auckland arrangement was retained in a special clause, but the rest of New Zealand reverted back to the terms of the carpenters and joiners' award, which provides for travelling time and fares only between a mile and a half from a special central point and the job. Later, intimation was given by the Government that it was not in favour of fares between the worker s home and the central point, but that if the Auckland workers agreed to make this concession, the rest of their clause would be applied to the whole of New Zealand. "The Auckland workers at a mass meeting last July agreed to this course and their offer was accepted by Mr. James Fletcher, Commissioner of Works. No move, however, was made to amend the Essential Building Order in this respect, but on November 12' a notice was published in the New Zealand Gazette revoking the clause relating to the Auckland arrangement, thus reducing the Auckland workers down to the award. Revoking of Clause "There was no prior consultation with Auckland workers' representatives, nor any notification to those concerned. The revoking of the clause means an average wage cut of 15/ per week for some thousands of workers. This is considered to be a violation of the stabilisation plan, as the arrangement described was in operation at the time stabilisation was introduced. Moreover, since sick pay was eliminated for the same workers last June, this constitutes the second wage cut, and the second breach of stabilisation within six months.