BELFAST SLAUGHTERMEN.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17981, 26 January 1924, Page 5

BELFAST SLAUGHTERMEN.

I BACK TO NORMAL I YESTERDAY. -

[' For the present at least-, the indica r tions are that the trouble "with the j' slaughtermen at the Canterbury |i Frozen Meat Company's works at Belr 1 fast is over, the "go slow' tactics 11 alleged to have been indulged in on ( t Thursday having been abandoned, for j 1 the time being, at any rate, j| i "The men are working all this J, momini-," a representative of The Press" -was informed by - vir I*. J- Shea, secretary of the company, when asked yesterday what the position was at the I works. In reply to a further question, h Mr Shea said: "There are no signs of ! , 'go slow.' " He was not prepared to t : express an opinion as to whether or I. 1 not this marked the close of the lncident. . . ji Communicated • with later m the 7 afternoon, Mr Shea reported that the state of things at the works during the dav had been normal. , Mr F. C. Ellis, secretary of the Freezing Works and Related Trades Union, had not returned from South J Canterbury vesterday, but is expected ii back to-day. He has been on business I connected with the members of the I Union employed at the freezing works [ at Pareora. , • Some doubt exists as to whether tho Union can force matters in the direc--1 tion of compelling the worker, who has ' declined to join the Freezing Works ' and Related Trades Union and in rcV spect of whose refusal so to I clo the men employed at the ' Belfast works are alleged to have adopted "go slow" tactics on Thursi day, to oecome a member of the Union i in accordance with the preference j elanse in the award eoverning freezing works' employees. The clause, which is the preference clause usually referred i l , to as the "Court's clause," sets out: I, '"lf any employer shall hereafter engage n any worker coming within the scope of II this award," etc. As the employee i who has refused to join the Freezing i Works and Related Trades Union has been in the employ of the company for the past 22 years, it is considered that 1 he is not within the scope of the clause in that ho has not been . "hereafter engaged"—the meaning applied to "engage" being "to take into the emplover's employ,'' and not "to continue to keep in the employer's employ." This interpretation appears to be borne out by the opening words of sub-clause (c): ( —"Whenever an employer shall engage j a worker," etc. Successful action, it ; is understood, was taken by the Union some time ago under the preference clause, but the likelihood is that the _ present case is not on all fours with that which occurred previously. Whatever the correct interpretation of the clause may be, it is fairly obvious that ' the allesecl action taken by the men on Thursday is in contravention of tTie award which (Clause 35 Disputes) mrfkes provision (1) for the work proceeding in the customary manner and not being impeded on any account, and (2) for the submission of any difference of opinion as to the contention or meaning of any matter arising out of the award, or connected therewith, to a committee composed of three representatives of the Union and three representatives of the employers. The Canterbury Traction and Stationary. Engine-drivers and Firemen and ; Greasers' Union is interested in the inatter to the extent that men employed at Paveora, Borthwick's, and. Belfast are members of the Union, and if the Freezing Works and Related

Trades Union insists on its preference! clause the Firemen and Greaser.s'Union will lose them as members. When the men at Parenra joined the Firemen and Greasers' Union, they were ijot members of any Union and their membership was gladly accepted: about they left the Firemen and Greasers' Union and joined the Freezing Works Union, the last-named Union at that time bein<7 in a position to secure improvement in the conditions siffectinq; firemen and greasers owing to the fact that at time prices for frozen meat were hi all and the freezing companies were in a position to meet the of the Freezing Works' Union. Generally, however, engine drivers, firemen and p-reasers employed at freezing Tt-nrV.s lmve been under the Frecsintr Works Union's award ; in fact i l« A Firemen and Greasers' Union nwnrd contains a clause that engine drivers employed at freezing works may come under local awards.