Pelting report denied

Press, 9 July 1983, Page 3

Pelting report denied

Meat workers at the Stoke works of Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, will not try out the company’s pelting machine at an increased rate of 3200 sheep a day for two days next week, said the secretary of the Canterbury - Nelson - Marlborough branch of the Meat Workers’ Union, Mr W. R. Cameron, yesterday.

A Press Association report from Nelson printed in “The Press” on Thursday said that the Stoke workers had voted unanimously at a meeting last Tuesday to use

the machine at full capacity for two days, subject only to Mr Cameron’s approval. But Mr Cameron said yesterday that he had been told by the workers that the only motion put at the meeting was to wait for him to arrive and be guided by his advice.

Mr Cameron described as “a lot of rubbish” reported comments by the operations general manager of the company, Mr J. Ryan, that he had detected a willingness among the men to try out the machine at its full

capacity. Mr Cameron said that the union expressed the wishes of its members and he had no fear that they were anything but loyal to both the union and the company. He said that the machine would remain on trial at its present rate of 2500 sheep a day until national agreement was reached on the introduction of new technology. The union saw agreement as urgent and through the Federation of Labour was trying to get talks with the employers resumed.