METAL WORKERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 995, 9 December 1910, Page 4

METAL WORKERS' DISPUTE.

EFFECT OF OUTSIDE COMPETITION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) Dunedin, December S. ■' Mr. J. E. Triggs, Conciliation Commissioner, sat to-day with assessors to hear tho claims of the Metal-workers' Union. The main claim of tho men was for increased pay to Is. ljil. per hour for all labourers, including tradesmen's' assistants, strikers, ya"rdmen, machinists, dressers, and furnacemen; and for labourers on tank work, stokehold work, and all work below main deck (iusido' or outside) Is. 2d. per hour. The employers strenuously and successfully resisted the claim for increased wages, saying that outside competition in lines of goods previously manufactured locally prohibited any increase of cost in local production. Tho union finally accepted Is. per hour for all classes of workers save machinists, who get Is. Id. per hour, and those in tank and stokehold work, who get Is. 2d. per hour without dirt money. A preference clause was passed, this being the first time in this industry. Tho claim for Is. lid. per hour for furnacemen working cupola and annealing furnaces was allowed. , All other clauses were on tho usual lines, ■