Conciliation Attempt At Freezing Works

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32367, 5 August 1970, Page 14

Conciliation Attempt At Freezing Works

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 4.

In an attempt to end the deadlocked dispute between chamberhands and their employers at the Westfield Freezing Works, Otahuhu, the Auckland district Superintendent of Labour (Mr A. B. Tuck) will hold a meeting with union and company representatives tomorrow.

The dispute, which has stopped all killing at the works, began more than a fortnight ago over the introduction of a bonus scheme, tffiamber-hands rejected the the proposed scheme in favour of a basic pay rate of $1.50 an hour instead of their existing rate of $1.16. They refused to work overtime and the dispute continued in low key until last Friday, when the chamberhands passed two resolutions which caused the issue of about 385 dismissal notices.

The men banned all export loading and also refused to brand, bag, pack, or weigh any item, or tally anything inside the freezer. At another meeting at the works on Monday the men received support for their actions by a small majority, and decided to raise their claim to $2 an hour.

The company reacted by paying off 428 workers. According to the general manager of the Westfield Freezing Company, Ltd (Mr J. A. Holland) about 900 men out of a total work-force of about 1200 will be laid off by tomorrow.

The fate of thousands of

unwanted bobby calves may have acted as a spur to the attempt at conciliation tomorrow.

The secretary of the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union (Mr T. P. Kelly), said today that he felt neither the company nor the union could solve the dispute. “It would appear that it will be solved only by the intervention of a third party,” he said.