Prom union viewpoint

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34106, 19 March 1976, Page 6

Prom union viewpoint

One way to reduce the cost of processing would be to have all-the-year-round employment in the meat industry, Mr W. R. Cameron, president of the Canterbury Trades Council, said in a forthright address to the seminar on costs beyond the farm gate at Lincoln College last week.

Grounds for bargaining for wage increases would be lessened, he said. 'One of the strong bargaining points is the seasonal nature of the work."

Even in January and February he said that workers could get at little as two or three hours of work.

Mr Cameron said that the quota system applying to the kill in Canterbury works meant that Canterbury had the highest number of working days of any area in the country — 114 compared with 83 in the North Island.

He said he believed that the spread of the kill in the province had had the effect of farmers planning their lambing and production better.

It was possible for farmers in the export industry to plan their production better and so bring about a better spread of the kill and greater efficiency in the industry.

At question time Mr Cameron was told from the floor that one of the main factors for there not being good productivity agreements in the industry was that the unions were reluctant to make concessions,

and he was asked what would be the attitude to manning and increased throughput on the mutton board. Mr Cameron said that there was a quota system in this area and worker interest was in the continuity of employment. "We would try to’ keep the throughput steady rather than have incentives to push up throughput for more money.” In some parts of the industry the work was monotonous and conditions were unpleasant and they were trying to keep manning at a level that would enable workers to have five or 10 minutes off an hour so that they could have a "smoke.” Mr Cameron said that increases in costs had' been due to sharp increases in export prices for primary produce and a stabilisation system for farm incomes would result in a lot of the sharp fluctuations in incomes and costs being avoided. “We do believe that we are entitled to a fair share of, the national cake,” said Mr Cameron. Farmers and workers were in a different situation, he said. Farmers had a stake in the industry 7 .

Wage and salary earners generally had no significant ability to benefit from increases in capital value, appreciation of investment or upsurge in the world values of commodities. Mr Cameron said that they had arrived at the conclusion that about a quarter of the charges for getting lambs from the farm gate to world markets would be taken up with labour costs in New Zealand. With new hygiene requirements ■ and increased production, Mr Cameron said that in many places workers were having to put through a great deal more work in facilities similar to those of 20 years ago. Highly critical of some of the new hygiene requirements, he said that in one case workers had to change their boots when they came off an elevated platform to go to the dining-room and go through the same procedure when they returned. Hygiene regulations h.ad resulted in more work but not higher production. It could have resulted in production levels being reduced.

There were times when freezing workers received excessively high pay, the union spokesman said, due to incentive arrangements under which people were encouraged to handle much more production. He believed that workers entered into such agreements unwisely.

Mr Cameron said it was his opinion that demarcation disputes were the Jeight of stupidity and not

a minute of time should be lost in such disputes. When it was drawn to Mr Cameron's attention that thousands of head of stock had had to be returned to farms as a consequence of industrial disputes and transport drivers had had to ■work on Sunday to do that, Mr Cameron said it was desirable that this stock in works should be slaughtered but it was not always possible to control the situation. On absenteeism in works, Mr Cameron said that there, was also absenteeism in; other sectors of the community. but of the nine freezing works in Canterbury, Marlborough and Nelson he acknowledged that there was a problem at two works and that they j were prepared to see what could be done. It had been: agreed that some action, should be taken againstj people who were absent: from work without reason ! able reason, k, ‘