END OF “STAY-IN” STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21993, 18 January 1937, Page 8

END OF “STAY-IN” STRIKE

Workers Abandon Tactics

MINISTER TO CALL CONFERENCE

FREEZING WORKS REOPEN TO-DAY (['HESS ASSOCIATION TEEECItAM.) AUCKLAND, January 17. The “stay-in”) strike by freezing workers finished last night after addresses by the Minister for Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, yesterday, and the men will return to work on Monday upon the Minister’s * assurance that he will call a conference of employees and employers not later than Thursday of this week. In the afternoon delegates from ’Westfield, Southdown, King’s Wharf, and Horotiu assembled in Auckland for a conference with the Minister, and after three hours’ deliberation each section returned to its respective works. The men then voted upon the proposal to return to work on the understanding that a conference would be held before Thursday to consider revision of the present wages conditions, and within an hour of the delegates’ return the men collected their belongings and returned home. Crowds collected outside the works after the departure of the Minister from Westfield soon after noon. A feeling of confidence that the end was in sight pervaded the occupied works. The men, who during the morning had washed and scrubbed out the dressing-rooms and other premises occupied as living quarters in the last four days, settled down to await the result of a further meeting between their delegates and the Minister in Auckland. The afternoon was spent in straightening up their quarters and collecting their bedding and effects and. talking with relatives and friends through the bars of the entrance gates and the iron railing ot the yard wall. The departure of the delegates to confer with the Minister intensified the interest, and there was considerable tension in the atmosphere until the representatives returned soon after 8 o clock.. By this hour there was a large congregation of relatives near the works. ■ A mass meeting was held, when reports were received from the delegates, who recommended that the men accept the assurance of the Minister that he would convene a conference of employers’ and workers’ representatives in Wellington not later than Thursday next on the understanding that the employees would immediately resume work. The vote was almost unanimously in favour of work being resumed on these conditions. The men were told to stand by until results were received from Southdown and King’s Wharf, where meetings were held simultaneously. The Horotiu workers were represented by their delegates at the conference and consultations between the works representatives, and were empowered to abide by the decision of the workers in the Auckland and Westfield districts. Confident in the belief that the reports from the other works would be similar to the decision at Westfield, the men began to congregate in the works yard with rolled blankets and bedding strapped on their shoulders. Motor-cars which had been standing idle for four days were cranked into activity, and hundreds of cycles and motor-cycles were brought forth from improvised shelters as men prepared for a hasty departure for home and its comforts. When definite news was received that the “stay-in” tactics had been abandoned the men soon left for their homes.

DISSATISFACTION WITH * JUDGE

WORKERS ASK FOR HIS REMOVAL (J'RESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) PALMERSTON N., January 16. A special meeting of the Longburn branch of the Wellington Freezing Workers’ Union was held last night, when the following resolution was passed. It will be forwarded to the Prime Minister: — “That in view of the unsatisfactory decision of. the Court of Arbitration in the award for freezing workers, the Longburn branch .has no confidence in the- court as at present constituted. It requests the Government to remove the present judge, and appoint in his place someone who can be relied upon to safeguard the workers’ interests by giving reasonable effect to the spirit of the industrial legislation passed by the present Government. Further, it requests that there be an immediate rehearing of the freezing workers’ award claims.”

“RESPONSIBILITY RESTS WITH GOVERNMENT” EFFECT OF STRIKE ON DAIRY FACTORIES

(MtESS ASSOCIATION XELEGHASIJ HAMILTON, January 16. A resolution was carried at a meeting of delegates from all dairy companies in South Auckland and one North Auckland representative at Hamilton to-day: “That this conference of delegates of dairy companies in the' Auckland province considers that the responsibility of an immediate settlement of the freezing works dispute rests solely with the Government, and desires to point out that unless a settlement is reached, the butte. factories will be compelled to cease operations almost immediately. We demand that the Government should take immediate steps to remove the men from the works.” A committee of three was appointed to go to Auckland immediately to acquaint the Minister for Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) of the gravity of the situation as far as the dairy ware concerned. ,