COOL STORE DISPUTE AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24741, 5 December 1945, Page 6

COOL STORE DISPUTE AT AUCKLAND

WORK TO RESUME TO-DAY

(P.A.) AUCKLAND. December 4. After a stoppage of two days, work will be resumed in the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company’s waterfront cool stores to-morrow morning. A tribunal set up by the Acting-Min-ister of Labour (the Hon. J. O’Brien) will start its sittings in the afternoon to investigate the men’s grievances regarding the temperatures in the freezing chambers. The tribunal will consist of the Industrial Magistrate, Mr J. A. Gilmour, who will preside, two representatives of the employers and two of the workers.

Dairy factories throughout the Auckland province had been requested by the freezing company not to consign any produce until further notice. When the men decided to return to work this request was cancelled, but not before quantities or butter and cheese loaded into trucks by Waikato factories had been returned to the freezing chambers. Had the stoppage of work been prolonged there would have been serious consequences, as on the average butter factories have accommodation for only three days’ “make” in their store rooms, and cheese factories room for seven days’ “make.” Farmers would have faced an impossible position in trying to dispose of their cream. About 35.000 cases of butter accumulated at Auckland in the wharf sheds and railway waggons during the dispute.