Butchers’ strike

Press, 10 November 1980, Page 18

Butchers’ strike

Sir, — So meat shop workers are going on strike for “a week at least”. If they can afford to lose a week’s pay they • are ob-

viously getting too much money. Their reasons for striking are puerile. We need tourists. The promoters talk glibly of casinos and other attractions but shopping — the greatest attraction of all — is denied to tourists at the week-end. Beer can be bought on Saturdays so why not healthful commodities? The solution to the problem of these senseless strikes would be legislation making it mandatory for all bars selling alcoholic liquor to be closed for the duration of any strike. — Yours, etc., M. A. HOGAN. November 7, 1980.

Sir, — Do the butchers’ rank and file understand they are being used by vested interests of unionism as guinea pigs and the risk they are taking? They have a dispute going on and they know that their employers do not want Saturday trading. The union bosses know they can hurt the public so the butchers are being used to pressure a no-Saturday agreement. But if Saturday trading takes off, shoppers will want meat on Saturday and someone will supply it. The butchers, unable to compete, will lose trade, staff will get the bullet or have to crawl back begging for Saturday work. When that happens, the package they get won’t be a patch on what they could get now if they refuse to be fooled by the big daddies. — Yours, etc., GEORGE CARTER. Hokitika, November 7, 1980. Sir, — It is not apparent just why this strike cannot be settled by agreement that all Saturday work be voluntary with no penalty inflicted on those not wishing to work on a Saturday. A breakdown in the voting for a strike would quite possibly show that it was the younger and unmarried section of the members, not wishing to forego their Saturday sports, racing and other Saturday activities, who have voted to strike. The more stable part of the membership, with marital commitments, would be against striking, as most of them would no doubt welcome the opportunity to work on Saturdays, and thus ease their financial burdens. — Yours, etc,, R. V. SHAW. November 6, 1980.