FREEZING WORKS LABOUR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14573, 17 January 1948, Page 4

FREEZING WORKS LABOUR

PLENTY AVAILABLE IN WELLINGTON

TEACHERS AND STUDENTS HELP

Freezing works in the Wellington district, and, in fact, throughout the North Island, are finding the labour position much easier this season, with the sole exception of the Waitara works. There is a shortage of such skilled workers as chain and solo slaughtermen, but not a serious one.

Whether the position will hold when the schools reopen after the epidemic is hard to say, because National Employment Service officials find it hard to explain the sudden influx of labour this year, unless the continued closing of the schools is accepted as a reason. It is known that since the days when school teachers and university students were directed into essential labour during the vacations many of them now return voluntarily to do the same work.

The wool industry has chiefly benefited by this trend, there being a waiting list, largely of students and teachers,' when the season opened, but there were still plenty available for freeing works labouring- .

The extra long vacation this year is thought to be the reason why more hands than usual are offering. The one exception in the otherwise fairly bright picture, Waitara, is thought to be clue to workers' inability to find accommodation there.