BREAD FOR NEXT SATURDAY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24768, 8 January 1946, Page 4

BREAD FOR NEXT SATURDAY

AUCKLAND BAKERS’ STATEMENT

RESPONSIBILITY PASSED TO GOVERNMENT

1 (P.A.) AUCKLAND, January 7. “The responsibility for next Saturday’s bread supply lies now with the Government,’’ said Mr H. P. Burton, vice-president of the Auckland Master Bakers’ Association in an official statement on the dispute between the employers and their employees concerning the hours to be worked each week. “The workers have resorted to direct action to achieve their aims, and it is now for the Minister of Labour to act and enforce the law if he is prepared to do so.

“So far no arrangements have been made for a conference as suggested to. and agreed by, the master bakers,” added Mr Burton. “The Labour Department has now been advised by the Master Bakers’ Association that unless a meeting is arranged by Wednesday there will probably be no bread' baked, in Auckland at the week-end. Thqre is a proper way for the union to settle this dispute with the Government. It is high time that the public realised the master bakers are not prepared to be forced into further concessions when the law is being' flagrantly flouted. In this connexion the union has never at any time produced an authority for its claim to work a fiveday week.”

With baking employees beginning their usual weekly work on Sunday and early this morning, there were ample supplies of bread in Auckland and the suburbs to-day from an early hour. Shops did a brisk trade, and sales were reported to be greater than is customary on Mondays. In anticioation of a rush for supplies most of the bakeries turned out extra batches of bread, and practically all the shops’ stocks had been cleared by midday.