FROZEN MEAT INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22796, 23 August 1939, Page 10

FROZEN MEAT INDUSTRY

CONTRIBUTION TO MEN’S UPKEEP

MINISTER’S THREAT OF EARLY ACTION

The possibility of action being taken by the Government to compel freezing companies to contribute towards the upkeep of employees in the off-season or to pay wages “sufficient to tide them over” was mentioned by the Hon. H. T. Armstrong (Minister for Housing) in an address to unemployed workers in Christchurch yesterday afternoon. “We must expect to have unemployment in Christchurch in the winter, because of the seasonal occupations,” said the Minister. “Some of the newspaper editors and some politicians say that the freezing workers make such money during the season that they should have enough to tide them over. That is an did. old story. That may be the position of some workers in the freezing industry, but I should imagine that the majority earn jus< enough to keep them going while they are at work —(hear, hear)—without making any provision for tiding them over a few months.” . The Government’s policy was not to pay sustenance, because there should be useful and necessary work for everybody in the country. “And T think the freezing companies should carry some of the responsibility. (Hear, hear.) They employ some thousands of men and some of them pay pretty substantial dividends, and I don’t think that the State should be called upon every year to tide them over till it suits the companies convenience to take the men back again. The companies should be either looked to to take some of the responsibility of providing work or pay sufficient to enable the men to live .'or the season. That question would have to be gone into very soon.” A man: Let them give us the £SOO a season they say we get. I will sell out for £250.