AUCKLAND FURNITURE TRADE.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14523, 27 November 1912, Page 10

AUCKLAND FURNITURE TRADE.

, ■ »■ ■—' STATEMENT BY EMPLOYER-- ' (-RES. ASSOCUTIOS TIX-GIIAM.) AUCKLAND, November 26. The following statement with refer- ' , ence to the position regarding tho furniture industry in Auckland has been y supplied by the employers: "During tha \< past few weeks articles have appeared, \ in various papers throughout the Do-';V>-minion, in which the Auckland furni— y turo employers have been charged with,"\: : competing unfairly with the southern,,'., ) centres. At a meeting of employer... ' in the furniture industry very strong ":' exception was taken to statements that '.' had appeared from time to time. At f - , tho present time tho trade is working V' under the award mado by tho Arbitral tion Court dated April lUth, 1911, _nd"V expiring on April sth, 1914, so that it *'" has still eighteen months to run. -Up ■•_ to the present everything has worked \ harmoniously between employers and , employees, but tho Federation, of which Mr Moriarty, of Wellington, is ;J secretary, wants this harmony dis-^'; turbed. " At tho request of the v em- .- /i ployees, tho employers met them h-';- 1 - I confqrenco a week or two ago, but no- v ■/*- ---thing came of it, as the employers / k , were convinced that no evidence had '/, been placed before them io justify, them in agreeing to break tho award of \ } the Court. Tho Auckland factories '* *- are working under an award of -47"'?f hours per week, at Is 3.d per hoar. I_ j-;: some of the southern contres tho award V \ f is Is 4_d per hour for 44 hours per.*,. - week, but it was proved that mp-f,,;, 1 / men in Auckland' aro receiving Is per hour for 47 hours, and thero, no evidence tliat these men pared- to 'forego tho 4a per would result from" a curtailing of t_». ; „ hours. Evidonco is also wanting to .„■ prove that Aucklnnd-mado furniture »; ~ being sent south in excess of that coirf. ';• ing north. Tho employers 'were __&- *;. nimous in the position they took up at ■"\ tho conferenco, and it is incorrect to f ;. stato that thero is any tension exi-ting ~; between master and man in t_o'".auek-\;£ land factories." . . ' \.f v