Abattoir dispute not settled

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33383, 15 November 1973, Page 14

Abattoir dispute not settled

The dispute at the Christchurch city abattoir is continuing without any firm indication of a possible end. Although city butcheries have sufficient meat supplies to tide them over today, another day without killing at the abattoir will change this.

Labourers at the abattoir, run by Canterbury Bye Products, Ltd, walked out on Tuesday morning in support of a wage claim which had been refused by the company the previous day. They did not report for work yesterday and so killing at the abattoir is two days behind. The men will meet at the plant today to discuss the

issue further, but the company still has no word of when the men might return to work. The managing director of the company (Mr K. R. Churchward) said last evening that he had had no official word from the union since Monday and learnt only “unofficially” that they had stopped work. “We will be putting stock up in the morning, but whether or not there is anybody there to kill it is another matter. The men certainly haven’t approached me for further talks over the claim and they will have to go back

to work before I am prepared even to consider that,” he said. The president of the Meat Retailers’ Association (Mr J. Collins) confirmed that most butchers had sufficient supplies for “a few days.” “What happens if the men at the abattoir don’t go back in the morning I don’t know, but we do have other wholesalers to call on,” Mr Collins said.