Meat talks and killing to continue

Press, 14 March 1978, Page 1

Meat talks and killing to continue

?A Wellington The freezing industry dispute appears unlikely to be resolved before tomorrow. in spite of long discussions at Parliament yesterday between the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and freezing companies’ and meat workers’ union representatives.

In the meantime the companies have agreed to put up stock for killing, and union members will proceed with normal work.

Mr Muldoon said the parties were still trying to find a settlement and that he hoped further talks could bi held tomorrow Government officials would spend the evening and today investigating individual freezing vumpanies to determine what the union’s claims were likely to cost the industry. The officials would “get from the companies figures the union can agree are near enough to correct — what the various claims are likely to cost,” Mr Muldoon said. Until that was done, there was no way the Government could assess whether the companies could meet the claims, he said.

The talks began at 8.30 a.m. yesterday but broke up after about two hours to get more information for a second meeting in the afternoon. Mr Muldoon said afterwards that the two sides

had gone away to try to reconcile conflicting views on the amounts involved in the claims.

“It is apparent that some of the figures put in front of us were not correct,” he said.

The union representatives had been “very reasonable” in that they had agreed it was in nobody’s interest for a total shutdown of freezing works, Mr Muldoon said. The meat workers' national secretary (Mr A. J. Kennedy) said after the talks that the Government would be given “two or three days at the outside” tc get the necessary information from the freezing companies.

The executive director of the Freezing Companies’ Association (Mr P. D. Blomfield) said some of the companies’ figures had been estimates, and that was why the Government had gone back to the companies.

He had not had time to provide the necessary information before yesterday afternoon’s meeting, Mr Blomfield said.

About 70 to 80 per cent of farmers in South Canterbury would be prepared not to send stock to freezing works if rolling stoppages resumed, said the secretary of South Canterbury Federated Farmers (Mr D. Turpie) last evening. This figure was based on a telephone survey of farmer opinion at the week-end.