1000 workers laid off; works closed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33075, 16 November 1972, Page 1

1000 workers laid off; works closed

(By our industrial reporter)

About 1000 Hawke’s Bay workers were laid off yesterday when the Whakatu Freezing Works was closed over a dispute concerning the employment of women on the chain floor.

The managing director (Mr R. D. Little) maintains that the men have not abided by a decision of the Freezing Industry Disputes Committee made after earlier stoppages. The secretary of the New Zealand Meat Workers’ Union (Mr F. E. McNulty) maintains that it is the company and not the union which is refusing to abide by the decision. The industry committee ruled that positions not taken by men in the offal department could be offered to women, and on Monday the works started six women on the viscera table of one of the works’ four chains. Once the offal reached the viscera table, where the women were to handle kidneys and livers, the men stopped the chain and the union president is reported to have told the women they were not wanted. The other three chains resumed work, but the management told the men that when they had finished killing stock at the works, no further stock would be accepted for killing until the women were allowed to work. Mr McNulty says that the

company has breached the disputes committee decision by failing to employ men who had previously been employed on the viscera table. He also says that men employed on the slaughter floor last year had become redundant through production changes resulting from changes in the hygiene regulations, and these men also were not considered for the jobs given to the women. The chairman of the disputes committee (Mr A. H. Nordmeyer) agreed yesterday on the application of the union, to hear the fresh dispute, either tomorrow or on Saturday. The company’s general manager (Mr I. D. Cameron) said that he had not officially been told of Mr Nordmeyer’s agreement to a hearing, but in any case the company would not agree to return to the disputes committee until women were allowed to work on the viscera tables after men who had done the same work last year had been offered the job. Either one of the parties to the dispute is mistaken in its view of the facts, or there is confusion over the effect of the decision already given by the disputes committee. Whichever is the case, further consideration by the disputes committee seems the i only practical step and the one which will have to be taken sooner or later. So far, the continuing dispute at Whakatu has delayed the opening of the season for more than two weeks. The women workers, if and when able to work, will receive the same rate as men engaged on the same tasks, which is at least $62 for a 40-hour week.

The union is concerned about the protection of employment opportunities for male breadwinners in a district where there has been a relatively high rate of unemployment. Women have been employed for some years in other parts of freezing works and throughout this' time have been accepted as members of the freezing workers’ unions. Although women generally are more prone to absenteeism than men, this is not the case in the freezing industry, which is thought w be one of the reasons why management favours extending their employment, i