THE FREEZING INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23625, 30 April 1942, Page 6

THE FREEZING INDUSTRY

WASTE OF MANPOWER ALLEGED

PROTEST BY MEETING OF WORKERS A protest against what was described as the ‘‘unjust, uneconomic, and ineffective” use of manpower in the freezing industry was embodied ir. a resolution passed by members of the Canterbury Freezing Works and Related Trades Union yesterday. The meeting was held in the lunch-hour at the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company’s freezing works at Belfast. The text of the resolution, which was given to ‘‘The Press” by the secretary to the union (Mr H. G. Kilpatrick) last evening, is as follows: “That this meeting of freezing workers protests against the unjust, uneconomic, and ineffective use of manpower in the freezing industry at the present critical time. “We believe that the Government should immediately and without further delay amend existing regulations or formulate a new regulation suitable to the special needs of the freezing industry, and that the following principles be given eifect to: “(1) The provision of an adequate weekly wage for each worker compelled t j remain in the industry under the essential industries clauses of Regulation 1942/5. “(2) Provision for the effective utilisation of manpower by (a) the closing of one or more freezing works after the flush of the export season, thus releasing a large number of workers for essential work, or (b) by the provision of alternative essential work by the authorities on slack days throughout the export season. “There is general agreement that the freezing industry is essential to the war effort, but at the same time it is realised that the effective utilisation of manpower in the industry presents special problems. Many thousand working days are lost in the industry through ‘slack days,' i.e., days on which no stock is offering for slaughter. One result of this is that for the first four or six weeks and the last eight or 10 weeks of each season the workers, especially the lower-paid groups, average anything from £3 to £4 10s a week.

“Naturally such workers are justly resentful at being compelled to remain on starvation wages when essential war work at attractive rates is offering outside. A sense of frustration at the ineffective use of their time is an inevitable result of this state of affairs. It is time those in authority did something sensible and effective about it.”