STRIKERS FINED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1944, Page 3

STRIKERS FINED

KAIAPOI SLAUGHTERMEN P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, January 18. The action of the men in striking was rather hitting at the fundamentals of unionism and undermining the confidence of the public and was a matter for regret, said Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court, when 32 slaughtermen from the freezing works at Kaiapoi were each fined £5. Mr. R. T. Bailey, Inspector of Awards, prosecuted for the Labour Department, and Mr. S. Millar, president of the Kaiapoi branch of the Freezing Workers' Union, represented the men charged. The charge against each of the men was that being a worker bound by the New Workers' Award and being in the employ of the North Canterbury Sheepfarmers' Co-op. Freezing Export and Agency Co., Ltd., he did between January 4 and January li discontinue his employment with intent to compel or induce the said employer to vary the terms of employment or to comply with any demands made by the defendant. That the men had struck was admitted and that they had caused trouble and upset was admitted, said the Magistrate in giving his decision The president of the branch had put facts before the Court that might influence the minds of the men. From the national and international aspect their conduct was reprehensible. In these times of stress and turmoil it did not seem right in the circumstances, m view of the dreadful happenings, that an arbitrary stand should be taken by any group. However, the men seemed to have suffered because of their own ill-timed action. . . _ The Magistrate said he wished to warn the men that had the charges been laid under another Act, it was just a question whether the men would have be#m able to retain their liberty.