FREEZING WORKS STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24152, 11 January 1944, Page 4

FREEZING WORKS STRIKE

MEN DECIDE TO RESUME

PROSECUTIONS NEXT WEEK

The 33 slaughtermen who have been on strike at the Kaiapoi works of the North Canterbury Sheepfarmers' Cooperative Company, Ltd., since the afternoon of January 4 resumed work yesterday morning, pending the hearing of their dispute by the tribunal which the Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) has announced will be set up. In accordance with the Government’s decision to prosecute the strikers, the cases against the 33 men have been set down for hearing in the Magistrate’s Court, at Christchurch on January 18. Summonses were served on the slaughtermen at the works yesterday afternoon. The slaughtermen did not resume work at 8 o’clock in the morning, but held a meeting first. An official statement issued afterwards said that the following resolution was carried unanimously;— “We, the slaughtermen of the Kaiapoi freezing works, have decided to resume work pending the quick settlement of our dispute through the channels offered by the Minister of Labour. We take this action solely in an endeavour to accede to the wishes of the majority of the members of our branch of the union, and we are not influenced in our decision in any way by threats of prosecution or other outside influences.” The Minister of Labour said last evening that action would still be taken against the slaughtermen, although they had returned to work. The tribunal would be set up to consider the dispute, and the workers and the employers would be asked to nominate three representatives each. If they could not agree on a chairman, he would probably ask the Conciliation Commissioner (Mr S. Ritchie) to preside.

The slaughtermen went on strike because they claimed that one of their members had been victimised. This man, who was in the Army when he was directed to employment in the freezing industry, was arrested in Christchurch on Sunday on a charge of being absent without leave, and will be taken back to Trentham. He had been ordered by the National Service Department in Wellington to leave camp at Trentham and report to Christchurch for employment in the freezing industry. There was no vacancy for him at the Kaiapoi works, and normally he would have returned to the Army unless directed elsewhere.