No Government Action

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28784, 3 January 1959, Page 10

No Government Action

(New Zealand Pr*s* Aaoetotton) WELLINGTON, January 2. The Government has not yet moved to intervene in the strike called for next Tuesday by the Dairy Factory Workers’ Union. The Minister-of Labour (Mr Hackett), who is on holiday -at Coromandel, and the Secretary of Labour (Mr 11. L. Bockett), who is playing in the New Zealand bowls championships, are reported to be waiting until the results of a meeting of workers, - called by the national executive of the union, before they take any action. Meanwhile, directors of many dairy companies have said they are confident there will be no strike; but, they added, if there is, there is more than enough farmer-labour prepared. ■. to transport and process their own produce. But dairying leaders are perturbed that , there is no, Government action on the issue. Mr Walter Petersen, chairman of the dairy section of Waikato Federated Farmers, said today: “Siirely the Government is not going to stand idly by and allow the nation to lose at the rate of £2 million'a week.”

Employers in the/ Manawatu, Taranaki, and Wairarapa claim the workers in their factories have hinted that they do not intend to obey the union’s directive to strike, and tomorrow the employees of the Co-operative Dairy Company of Otago, Ltd., will meet the management in a discussion on the strike call.

No official confirmation of the proposed strike has been received by the Otago factory’sunion delegate, and none of the 50 workers has had the opportunity of voting on the question. The secretary of the Canterbury, Otago, and Southland Dairy Workers’ Union (Mr J. Allison) said this morning that official confirmation of. the strike would be received by factories soon. “There has been a little hitch in the circularising of workers and some may not even receive word until Tuesday,” he said. If any factory was to reject the strike call, the national federation would probably “blacklist” the products, said Mr Allison.

“Taranaki farmers are confident that Taranaki dairy workers will hot strike,” said the chairman of the Taranaki Federation of Dairy Factories (Mr L. D. Hickford, Okato) today, according to a New Plymouth message. But should undue pressure be put by the union on the Taranaki branch, he felt that there was not the slightest doubt that factories could be operated by farmers and farmers’ sons, many of whom had worked in cheese factories.

Mr B. L. Ebbett, an employers’ spokesman, - said the workers in the 48 dairy factories in the Manawatu and Wairarapa considered the union should have pursued its objective of better wages and conditions through recognised constitutional channels.