DISMISSAL OF MILL WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22345, 8 March 1938, Page 12

DISMISSAL OF MILL WORKERS

LABOUR DEPARTMENT'S REPORT FURTHER CONSIDERATION KY MINISTER "The officers have made a report explaining the cause of the trouble at the Kaiapoi woollen mills, and, as I want to see further into the explanation, I am not prepared to comment at this stage," said the Minister for Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong), when he was questioned by "The Press" last evening. As a result of a meeting of Kaiapoi businessmen a week ago resolving to ask the Government to give greater protection to local industries, a report by the union complaining of the dismissal of married men. and a statement being made to "The Press" by the president of the union (Mr W. B. McPartlin), alleging victimisation and intimidation, the Minister decided to have an investigation made and inquiries were made at Kaiapoi by two officers of the Labour Department. Since last week, there have been no further developments at the mills and the Canterbury branch of the Federation of Labour, which intervened when the first two men were dismissed, has received, as yet, no indication of the nature of the reports made by the department's investigators, or of their recommendations to the Minister,