PAY IN FREEZING INDUSTRY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28821, 16 February 1959, Page 16

PAY IN FREEZING INDUSTRY

Workers Said To Be Discontented After eight days in conciliation the employers had refused to grant a wage rise to freezing workers, and there was considerable discontent in the industry, said the general secretary of the New Zealand Freezing Workers’ Association (Mr S. Arnst) on Saturday. . The general conference of his organisation, which concluded in Wellington on Friday, was of the decided opinion that the industry could stand a wage increase and thereby give members of the affiliated unions a share of the wealth created by their labour, Mr Arnst said. Union representatives at a compulsory conference called by the Minister of Labour (Mr Hackett) for next Thursday will be Messrs L. W. Burney (national president), R. McKenzie (secretary of the Auckland union), T. H. Hill (secretary of the Wellington union) and Arnst.

A deputation from the conference had waited on Mr Hackett and discussed with him the question of off-season employment for union members, said Mr Arnst. Mr Hackett had told the deputation that he had been discussing the matter with other Ministers, and that work would be made available. The Minister had said that the stand-down period for employment, as applied to seasonal workers, should be adjusted. The conference had decided to seek some taxation relief as it had been contended that P.A.Y.E. operated unfairly against members of affiliated unions, said Mr Arnst. Among the remits adopted by the conference, said Mr Arnst, were ones seeking the repeal of the Police Amendment Act and the penal clauses of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the nationalisation of the freezing industry, and representation of workers engaged in the industry on the New Zealand Meat Board. The Wellington union was represented at the conference for the first time since 1951, said Mr ArnSt. This followed the registration of the district union late llastjrMX.