NO AGREEMENT

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21321, 14 November 1934, Page 9

NO AGREEMENT

TINSMITHS* DISPUTES BRIEF DISCUSSION IN CONCILIATION COUNCIL In the experience of the Conciliation Commissioner, Mr S, Ritchie, the sitting of a Conciliation Council yesterday was the shortest at which no agreement has Taeen reached. Claims for a new award were made by the North .Canterbury Tinsmiths, .Coppersmiths, and Sheet Metal Workers' Union. It was -tba }™g£ occasion on which the had been before a Conciliation Council, By, agreement, ; the wages clause was discussed fiXßt, ana in less than half an hour the council adjourned sine die without. reaching an agreement. The employees* assessors were Messrs E. Parlane, A. H. Hanharo, A. J. McClure, and G. T. Thurston. The employers' assessors were Messrs w. R. Crompton, H. Oakley, J. Mercer, and U. I. Macdonald.. , The employees* claims for wages, with the employers' counter-proposals in parenthesis, were:—Journeymen coppersmiths, sheet metal workers, and tinsmiths 2s 3d an hour Us 10* d an hour); head grease-tinner, head galvaniser, and copper-tinner, 2s 3d an hour (Is lOJd); head man of a department where a guillotine machine is used, or a machine for manufacturing spotting, ridging, down-pipes,* or for curving iron or soldering downpipes, ridging, or flashing, 2s 3d,4m hour; and Is Hid for aU men employed on the machines (Is 71d for aE men employed on the. machine); second grease-tinner and hoop-tinner, Is Hfd (Is 7*d); picklers and other assistants for tinning, Is 10£ d (Is Bid).

"Agreement Can be Made" Mr Thurston said the main item in dispute was wages. The employees were not prepared to discuss an agreement with wages at Is 101 d an hour. From his own knowledge he knew that the employers in the trade did not want an agreement at that rate; they wanted a higher rate. The employees could come to an agreement at a higher rate, whether an agreement was reached at the Conciliation Council or not. Moreover, the employers were just as anxious for an award as the employees. They wanted it to protect themselves against their friends. . Mr Macdonald said the position -of the employers was unchanged. The conditions in the trade had improved only very slightly, and the employers could not make any advance on the offer made at the last Conciliation Council. The employers were not disposed to make any advance while the engineers' dispute was not settled. The commissioner said it was the shortest sitting he had ever known when no agreement had been reached. He had known shorter sittings, but in those cases agreements had been made.