WORLD OF LABOR.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 58, 4 March 1913, Page 6

WORLD OF LABOR.

POSITION AT HASTINGS. HASTINGS, Feb. 28. Owing to the collapse of the strike .ii the Canterbury district the local slaughtermen will follow the course taken bv the strikers in the South and return to work, was the opinion expressed by one of the strikers. Nothing definite can be decided until the men hold a meeting. Many of the strikers have left tlie district and some trouble would be experienced in getting them together, but even should the ex-slaugh-termen agree to resume work it is pos-1 sible that a good manv will be unable to obtain hooks. At Tomqana, for instance, there is a full-board of. 35 butchers. The number of sheep .out through bv them for one dav has been as high ■s 2500 and the men are daily becomfng more efficient with the knife. In view of the statement made at the beginning of the strike that the firm would "rotecit the men who came to its assisetauce as free laborers it is unlikely that the strikers will be able to go back, oven if they wish. Thirtyfive men went out on strike at Tomoaua and -10 have since returned! to work. A few of the others are still about town marking • time.: At the Pakipaki works there are 20 free laborers on the board and they put through between 900 and 1000 sheep daily. When the ex-slaughtermen sheathed their knives there were 28 killing. The services of the free laborers will be retained, and should there be any hooks to spare the strikers will be allowed to' resume work on the terms and conditions offered by the companies. Five more free laborers are expected at Paki■)ik:, and there will then be a total V"Mtl of 25. leaving only three hooks unfilled.

A representative of the North British Company stated that the company wou'd have nothing whatever to do with t-ho ex-slaughtermen, even if they decided to abandon the strike. The tal'- was better than before the strike commenced, and he is satisfied with the work at present being done.

WELLINGTON. March 7. The secretary of the Slaughtermen's Federation (Mr M. J. Reardon) challenthe accuracy of the Press Association's messages from Gisborne. Three cases are cited. He gives an absolute 'denial to the information sent down on Friday „to the effect that at a meeting of killers it was decided* to approach the companies for reinstatement if "free" men were d : s:harged. "The achia! fact is," added Mr Reardon, "that the Gisborne men are standing in with the rest of the North Island men in whatever decision is arrived at. The obvious inference to be drawn from the mess? <i:> is that *he G'sbnrne butchers are doing as the Canterbury men did, but, as I have suggested be fore, this is not the case." The new union, designated the Nga'align Slaughtermen's Industrial ("n'on of Workers, has given notice of anneal against the decision of the Labor Department in refusing its registration. Tli" appeal will he'heard! on March 14. Mr Reardon yesterday received formal notice from the Department that this part'cular union's application had been refused on the grounds that ''members of the proposed union might conveniently belong to the Slaughtermen's Union."

POSITION IN SOUTHLAND. The Southland Slaughtermen's Union met in the Labor Hall on Saturday night, and it is understood that it was ; unanimously decided to continue the ; strike (states the [Southland Times'), 1 The j>resi(!eri ■„ denies that 15 of the members of the union have returned to ; work, but admits that three or four ; tnav have done so. j SURFACEMEN'S WAGES. i , DUNE!)]N.Man,) 2. Sm-iaceuit'n employed by the Tiiicii f'ouiitr (Smneil applied a.t a on Saturday for an increase in wages from Ks to 10a. The matter w).» considered in committee and the request was declined. WHARF LABORERS' STRIKE., „„ , SYDNEY, March 1. The wliarf laborers at Darling Island have struck because the Government railway laborers for a shilling an hojir perform oasna] truck work for which those oh the wharves get Is 9d>