Meat sale ban continues

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 13

Meat sale ban continues

The ban on late-night meat sales by members of the Canterbury Shop Assistants’ Union will continue.

Some shoppers were confused on Friday when they found they could not buy meat, because an advertisement which appeared in "The Press” on Rriday said that the ban had been lifted.

The sales manager of G.U.S. Wholesalers, Ltd (Mr B. Johnstone), said that the company placed the advertisement having been told by the Meat Retailers’ Federation that the ban was off and hearing the news broadcast on Radio Avon.

The man who passed on the message was Mr B. Shackel, national president of the Meat Retailers’ Federation. He said on Friday that a “communication” from the head office of the federation said that new dates had been set for resumption of conciliation talks on the butchers’ award and that the ban was off “forthwith.” Mr Shackel said that the term “forthwith” was understood to mean from the time the message was received, but he had subsequently learnt that this was incorrect.

“The ban has not been lifted,” he said.

The assistant secretary of the union (Mrs M, Hilston) said that no new date had been agreed to by the union assessors. She said that owneroperators in Canterbury had been “very co-oper-ative” by not selling meat after 5.30 p.m. since the ban was applied. Only one butcher had had to be told of the union position, and had co-operated when told.