All Workers To Resume This Morning

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25148, 1 April 1947, Page 6

All Workers To Resume This Morning

TRIBUNALS TO CONSIDER TERMS OF SETTLEMENT

Two strikes—one lasting 101 days in seven Canterbury freezing works, and the other lasting only one day at the Christchurch city abattoir—were settled yesterday. To-day work will be resumed by all slaughtermen and other workers in the Canterbury megt-export industry, and in the Christchurch domestic meat supply industry.

In both disputes, the precise terms of the settlement were not announced; but the terms, it is reported? were largely on the lines of the demands made by the men. Both disputes have now been referred to tribunals under the Strike and Lock-Out Emergency Regulations. The effect of such action is that any wage increases agreed upon, if approved by the. tribunal, will be final and not subject to revision by the Stabilisation Commission or the Arbitration Court.

Agreement was apparently reached in the freezing works strike that the guaranteed minimum weekly wage is to be increased to £6 10s, exclusive of overtime, the wage to be retrospective to the beginning of the season. Workers at the city abattoir are almost certain to receive an increase of £1 a week, the increase being passed on to the master butchers in extra higher charges which the Price Investigation Tribunal will be asked to approve.

Final conferences between the union and the freezing companies, in the major case, and with the City Council in the abattoir case, were brief preliminary discussions having been held. Yesterday was an extremely busy day for union officials. While representatives of the abattoir workers were holding discussions with the City Council and the Master Butchers’ Association at Sockburn, leading union officials were in conference with representatives of the companies at the office of the Conciliation Commissioner in Manchester street. Substantial progress had been made when the freezing works dispute conference adjourned early in the afternoon for the employers to consider the union’s final demand, and it was not resumed until 3.45 p.m. A decision to settle the strike was quickly made, the settlement being known in industrial circles before 5 p.m. The arguments in the case for the abattoir workers were debated in the morning and afternoon, afid representatives of the City Council and the union agreed to meet again at 10 p.m. In less than an hour, an agreement was reached. The agreement was, in effect, to make a new award conceding the workers a wage increase of £1 a week. The old award has expired, and as the decisions of tribunals under the Strikes and Lock-out Emergency Regulations are final, the transference of the dispute to a tribunal is a formality to make the new wages scales operative. The master butchers will be called on to pay increased rates for the killing of their stock. * Commissioner’s Report “The conference convened this morning under my chairmanship made satisfactory progress,” said Mr Rigg in a statement, “and later in the day such a sufficient measure of agreement was reached that assurances were given and accepted by both parties and it was agreed that work should be resumed on Tuesday morning, pending the decision of a tribunal which the Government has agreed’to set up under the Strike and Lock-out Emergency Regulations.” In the negotiations Messrs T. W. Russell, H. G. Kilpatrick, S. Arnst and W. B. Gates represented the union and Messrs C. G. Wilkin, D. P. Garrick and J. Gunderson, together with Mr A. C. Perry (counsel for the employers) represented the Canterbury works companies. Substantial progress was made at the sitting which began at. 10 a.m. and adjourned at 1 p.m. The conference did not meet again till 3.45 p.m., and in a little more than one hour agreement was reached to settle the strike. The strike dispute will now be referred to a tribunal under the Strikes and Lock-out Emergency Regulations, and on its ratifying the agreed terms of the settlement tne decision will be binding on both parties. On the, tribunal incorporating in its decision the agreement between the parties, the new minimum weekly wage will become effective without further reference to the Stabilisation Commission. Cost to Strikers 3 When the retrospective pay is paid out to the commencement of the sea-* son, the minimum wage workers, who number about one-third of the 1500. workers in the seven Canterbury freezing works, will receive an amount little less than they would have received had works operations continued since March 21. Piece-workers, however, will not receive any payments and have to count their wage losses of the last 10 days as their contribution to their fight for the lowerpaid workers in the industry. The strike has cost some workers about £25 and many £l3 and £l4. By a national disputes committee agreement last November, the guaranteed minimum weekly wage was fixed at £6, inclusive of overtime. In subsequent negotiations, the union asked for a minimum wage amounting to £6 12s 9d, exclusive of overtime, and from the commencement of the season. In reply the companies offered £6, exclusive of overtime, as from the beginning of the season. This offer was withdrawn when the workers went on strike. When the agreement reached yesterday is ratified, the minimum wage workers will receive in their envelopes £5 17s for work from Monday to Friday, plus any overtime for Saturday work. Before the strike, their pay envelope contained £5 8s as a minimum. As from April 20, the minimum pay in the envelopes will be £6 0s 3d. as from that date the remaining 6d in the £ national security tax will be abolished. The resumption of work to-day will mean that there will have been only three full days of work in the fortnight before Easter. The men will now qualify for Easter holiday pay. The proposal made eight days ago by the companies was that the works should close from next Thursday afternoon until the following Wednesday morning. With *’ae loss of seven full working days, overtime will probably have to be worked to handle the stock at the peak of its condition. The resumption of work to-day by th? freezing workers automatically lifts the declaration of “black” made on all the works. Firemen were recalled to the works last night to get up steam so that operations can be in full swing when the whistles sound this morning.

No Work at Abattoir Carrying out their threat, slaughtermen at the City Abattoir declined to begin work yesterday morning when no satisfactory answer to their demand for an increase in wages of £1 a week for all workers in and about the abattoir was received. Reports on the rJuiJh. u spr ® ad rapidly throughout Christchurch and butcheries were rushed by customers. T b e situation, from an industrial angle, became serious when a gang of master butchers lifted supplies of frozen lamb, mutton, and pork from the freezing works and distributed it to butchers. Under the declaration made by the freezing workers and the Canterbury Trades Council of the Federation of Labour, this meat was black. Some was carried into shops in the city yesterday afternoon from the lorries, one master butcher remarking: “This is probably the last meat we wifi see for a long time.” The butchers’ assistant section of the Shop [Assistants’ Union became involved, and officials of the union decided last I evening that after all meat in the shops . was sold all further supplies from the freezing works would not be handled. No statement was issued by the Shop 1 Assistants’ Union. Negotiations be-

tween the workers and the representatives of the Christchurch City Council indicated that the prolongation of the strike would be avoided. A settlement was reached after several conferences, when the City Council representatives met the union, after the regular meeting of the City Council had finished. The terms of the settlement will be discussed by a tribunal over which Mr Rigg will preside. The members of the tribunal will be:—for the City Council: the Deputy-Mayor (Cr. M. E. Lyons), the chairman of the abattoir committee (Cr. J. N. Clarke), and the Town Clerk (Mr H. S. Feast); for the union: Messrs Kilpatrick and Arnst (representing the union), and Russell (representing the abattoir workers). After the abattoir workers had struck, a conference lasting till 1 p.m. took place at Sockburn, the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews) being among the City Council representatives, and Messrs E. R. Blanchard (president) and C. Welsford representing the Master Butchers’ Association. The first suggestion that the workers should agree to the dispute being referred to a tribunal whose decision would be binding was flatly rejected by the men, who stood firm by their demand for a wage increase of £1 a week. The Master Butchers’ Association held a meeting in the afternoon; and its representatives were present when another conference took place later in the afternoon at the municipal chambers between the City Council and the workers, leading officials of the Freezing Workers’ Union not being present, as they were engaged at another conference reaching finality on the major strike. Master Butchers’ Statement “The dispute at the abattoir is between the workers an® the contractors (W. Lewis and Son) and the Christchurch City Council who are parties to the award which fixes the rates of wages at the abattoir,” said a statement issued by the Christchurch Master Butchers’ Association.” The association is not a party to the award, and had no part in the framing of it. ‘‘Naturally, master butchers are vitally concerned with the outcome of the negotiations, as their business and service to the public depends upon the supply of meat from the abattoir. The executive decided, at to-day’3 nxeeting, to agree to any increase in killing charges which may be authorised by the Stabilisation Commissioner if any adjustment in award rates is authorised.” Both representatives of the City Council and the union commented, when the statement was referred to them, that the declared attitude of the master butchers was merely words, as the retailors knew that they would have to agree to any increased charges authorised. A general meeting of members of the Master Butchers’ Association has been called for this morning.