FREEZING WORKERS GO SLOW

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 93, 14 January 1926, Page 6

FREEZING WORKERS GO SLOW

UNION SECRETARY’S EXPLANATION

There has been a certain amount of curiosity about the instruction of the freezing companies in the south that the slaughterers were not to be allowed to kill more than four sheep per hour instead of the usual twelve per hour. It is understood that this combined action bv the southern companies is intended to counteract the go-slow tactics adopted by the tnen with a view to compelling the companies to grant increased wages. Mr. I’’. C. Ellis, secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers* Union, stated the other day (as reported by an exchange) that he bad been informed that at one of the works the men wanted to resume the full killing rate that morning, but the company refused to give them the stock. He understood that the company had the stock available. When asked the reason for the action taken by the men in reducing the output at the works, Mr. Ellis stated that the men were annoyed. They considered that they were rightly entitled to the increase of a penny an hour in accordance with thg last pronouncement of the Arbitration Court, which, in the case of piece-workers, would work out at the rate of 4 per cent. Mr. Kilis said that neither side could approach the Court separately with an application for an amendment of the award. The parties must reach an agreement on the matter first and then make a joint application for the award to be amended. The employers had refused tv agree to the increase in wages, and the union was not able to approach the Court without that agreement.

Tn renly to further inquiries, Mr. Ellis said that he could not say how long the men were prepared to continue diminished killings. He had not heard anv mention of a strike.

The wages earned during the last two seasons, as supplied bv the union to the Arbitration Court, were as fol-lows:—l923-21: Slaughtermen, £5 16s. Id. to £5 ss. 2d.; casing labourers, J 33 17s. lid.; pelt labourers, £3 os. Bd.'; slauehter-house assistants. £3 95., £3 3s. 6d., £1 Is. 1921-25: Slaughtermen, £6 2s. 6d., £5 17s. Id., £5 4s. 4d.; slauirhter-botise assistants, £3 16s, 4d., £3 17s. 2d., £3 4s. 2d., £3 Ils. 6d., £3 Ils. 1-1.