FREEZING WORKS STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 8

FREEZING WORKS STRIKE

Guarantee Of Pay Or Full Work Sought KILLING STOPS AT ISLINGTON After their demand that at least two months’ full-time employment, or the equivalent pay, be guaranteed haf been refused by the New Zealand Refrigerating Co., Ltd.. 73 slaughtermen at the Islington freezing works declined to resume killing yesterday afternoon. More than 400 workers are affected by the strike. A further meeting of the slaughtermen will be held at the work* this morning. No comment on the strike or negotiations between the slaughtermen and the management leading up to it was made by the company

last evening. “We have had a slack time, but the men have borne the position more or less cheerfully, knowing that it was beyond the control of the company, because of seasonal conditions,” said a spokesman for the slaughtermen to “The Press.” “At- the same time the company started a second chain at the beginning of the season and we accepted the company’s word that it was done on the assumption that the season would be a normal one, in which case the learners’ chain, which it really is, would be quite justified. “But we nave had short time ever since the season opened. We have not had a full week. It now appears that for the next six weeks or so we are going to have full time, but the company has advertised over the air and through the newspaper for labour. “We are not concerned about how many labourers the company employs. Our concern is that the company has advertised for competent slaughtermen. Already, and in the last few days, several slaughtermen have been employed. Two Meetings “The engagement of new men from everywhere when the company had not been in a position to keep normal workers fully employed was discussed at the usual stop-work meeting this morning. As a consequence, a resolution was made that the delegates approach the company with the proposal that a guarantee of at least two months full-time employment or equivalent pay be given, or that no additional slaughtermen be employed. “The company refused this request,” said the spokesman. “The company’s refusal was conveyed to the men at the lunch hour. The meeting continued until 1.30 o’clock, when the men resolved that they cease work forthwith, and that that position be continued until such time as the company is prepared to give them some guarantee of full employment or ceases the employment of additional slaughtermen. “The company again refused to meet either proposal. The Freezing Workers’ Union board of control at Islington met again this afternoon. Negotiations went on without result throughout the afternoon between the board of control and the company.” Earnings of Men When the slaughtermen meet this morning Mr H. G. Kilpatrick, secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers* Union and of the National Union, will be present. He was attending a meeting of Woolston tannery workers when the Islington slaughtermen decided to strike. “On the average, we have been earning only two-thirds of the pay we would collect if the season was normal,” said the men’s spokesman. He said that the average wage of the slaughtermen exceeded £l5 a week. For a number of weeks labourers at the works, he said, had been receiving the minimum pay fixed by the freezing workers’ award, and the most they had received above the minimum wage was 4s or 5s a week.

Freezing operations at Kaiapoi, Belfast. Fairfield, Smithfield, and Pareort continued normally yesterday.