MANAGEMENT OFFER TO END FREEZING DISPUTE

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 1

MANAGEMENT OFFER TO END FREEZING DISPUTE

(Neto Zealand Press .Association) WELLINGTON, February 3. Longburn freezing workers will meet tomorrow to discuss a management offer to end the dispute which led to two men being dismissed last week.

The president of the Wellington Freezing Workers’ Union (Mr F. B. Thorn) is travelling to Palmerston North tomorrow morning to address the meeting. Mr Thom said the offer of a settlement was made to him tonight. He could not give details until the union members had been advised but he said it appeared that the company’s management “has come to its senses.” “The offer as it was relayed to me contained a couple of points which seem pin-pricking and may require further discussion,” Mr Thorn said.

“However, in view of the importance of the national issues being affected by this

dispute I am hopeful we may reach a settlement.” But a return to work at Longburn may not resolve the dispute over interim wage increases for mutton slaughtermen. Ban On Mutton An earlier breakdown in negotiations for such an increase led to the union’s instituting a ban on mutton slaughtermen working on piece-work rates. Tomorrow is the tenth day on which freezing workers throughout the country have each processed 64 animals a day compared with the 100 a day handled on piece-work rates.

The freezing companies had refused to meet the unions to discuss the wage claims while what they termed go-slow tactics were in force. And the unions had refused to discuss a counter offer of early negotiations on a new award for the industry while the Longburn dispute was not settled.

The freezing companies’ reason for extending the deadline on their ultimatum a second time was dismissed as “face-saving bunkum” by the secretary of the North Island Freezing Workers’ Federation (Mr T. F. Collerton) tn Masterton today. Spilt Apart Yesterday the companies postponed, indefinitely, their decision to withhold stock for killing. According to the employers’ union the postponement was made in the light of "new developments and consultations with the Government.” “The reason given is only a

face-saver. The real reason; for the postponement is the fact that the companies are split apart,” Mr Collerton said. “Some of the companies have indicated they would put up stock in spite of any decision by the employers’ union to suspend killing,” he said. About 16 delegates from unions affiiliated to the New Zealand Freezing Workers’

Association will attend the annual conference which opens in Christchurch today and will continue until Friday. One of the main topics will be the present dispute and, arising out of it, the present relations between the association and the body representing many of the North Island freezing workers’ unions—the North Island Freezing Workers’ Federation.