FREEZING WORKERS’ WAGES

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22796, 23 August 1939, Page 16

FREEZING WORKERS’ WAGES

TO THE EDITOB OP TUB PRESS Sir, —In reply to Mr Goosman and other Nationalist members who have been guilty' of gross misstatements about the earnings of freezing workers and their eligibility for work in the off. season, I wish to make the following statement. In so doing, I want to make two points quite clear: first, the actual earnings of freezing workers, and the unscrupulous tactics employed by certain members of the National Party to misrepresent the position. Mr Goosman is reported as saying: “The Year Book shows a total of 7835 persons employed in the industry, and they have received in wages a total of £2,188,102, an amount sufficient to provide a wage of £5 7s 6d a week all the year round for every man, •woman, and girl employed in the industry.” It is quite clear irom the foregoing that the intention of this is to create the impression that freezing workers are In receipt of an income of £5 7s 6d a week if taken over the whole year, and despite that fact, the Government is providing work which, according to Mr Goosman, is just an excuse to pay wages to these already overpaid workers and thus undermine the moral fibre of the nation. The method employed by Mr Goosman in the treatment of these figures, which give him such startling results, iis just as crude as it is simple. He takes a figure representing the total income of all employees in the industry, including high salaried officials, works managers, secretaries, engineers, and departmental foremen, to say nothing of large clerical staffs and weekly hands, etc., and divides this amount by the equivalent of the actual union membership; and the trick is done. While not sharing Mr Goosman’? for the moral fibre of the nation, I do say that there is ample cause for alarm in the fact that a political party can, after an exhibition of morals which permit such deception, still continue in public life and get away , with it. Not content with the manipulations already outlined, Mr Goosman goes on to state: “The lowest fPaid.hutcber ,last season received £598 ■4s ;6d.,while the scale ranged as high as £660!” In refuting this absurdity, I need only state ‘that in working as a butcher over the period stated, my earnings without loss of - time, and doing all work offering for the season, did not exceed ,£220, this being above the average for butchers in the Canterbury district, while other departments ranged down as low as £165.

In conclusion. I would suggest that confirmation of my figures can be obtained at any freezing. works without recourse to the Year Book.—Yours, etc., FREEZING WORKER. August 22, 1939.