DELAY AT SEASON’S PEAK

Evening Star, Issue 23128, 30 November 1938, Page 9

DELAY AT SEASON’S PEAK

THE FREEZING WORKS HOLD-UP STOPPAGE AFFECTS GRADE FOR HOME MARKET TWO ABORTIVE CONFERENCES [Peb United Press Association.] . AUCKLAND, Nov. 29. Conferences between the representatives of the men and the management of the Westfield Freezing Works to-day failed to bring about a settlement of the men’s grievances and no work was done in the slaughtering or other departments during the day by the usual staff. Hopes that an adjustment would be reached were nullified by the deadlock that ensued in the talks between the parties. A mass meeting of 850 men, boys and girls employed at the works was held at 8 o’clock, and representatives of the workers and the president of the Freezing Workers Union (Mr G. Baker) were appointed to confer with the management. Pending the result of the conference most of the workers returned to their homes on the understanding that another mass ineeting would be held at midday. The conference extended over fully three hours and the workers’ delegates reported the trend of the talks to a mass meeting held shortly before 1 o’clock. They stated that no definite progress had been made, but that the conference would be resumed at 2 p.m. Several of the workers called for a more detailed report being presented by the delegates, but were met with the reply that the workers would require to reppse confidence in their representatives. The workers dispersed and left for their homes after a resolution had been adopted calling a further meeting for to-morrow morning at 8 • o clock to receive .further reports on the negotiations. • ■ The proceedings in the afternoon were comparatively brief, and the conference ended without any progress having been made in the talks lasting for about 45 minutes. No official statement was made on behalf of the workers but one was issued by the management. It stated that no settlement had been reached. It is stated that the issue m dispute concerns only a small percentage of the 850 workers involved m the stoppage. Several of the workers said that they would suffer by the stoppage and any concessions gained would not bring them any compensating benefits or increases in remuneration. The appearance of numerous motor cars, obviously from distant country places, gave rise to the belief that the farmers were arriving to offer their services in slaughtering and other work. ■ No confirmation of this was available, although a considerable number of farmers made ■ calls of inquiry throughout the morning. ' . During the day the staff employees and several of the office staff assisted in killing and dressing fully 100 bobby calves and a number of pigs held over from Monday. That class of stock could not be held over indefinitely. Fat lambs were not handled and are being fed at the works. The staff hands also car- "* ried out the loading of chilled beef from the cool stores for shipment by the Port Townsville, now taking cargo at Auckland in preparation for her departure on Saturday. * The serious effects of the hold-up of slaughtering were admitted by the management, although it declined to comment on the suggestions that an early endeavour would require to be made to handle the large numbers of fat lambs being held on the farms. The capacity of the works plant is fully 9000 lambs daily, and the peak of the. killing season is almost at hand. One of the visiting farmers said that lambs, unlike othep classes of stock, had to be handled at specific times, otherwise the weight and bloom of the carcass would not be of the quality and grade desirable for the Home market. Even a few days’ delay would substantially affect the selling value of a carcass.

STATEMENT BY MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION ON " RING " SYSTEM AUCKLAND, Nov. 29. A statement on conferences between the management of the Westfield Freezing Works and the men’s representatives was issued to-night by the management as follows: “ The management met the representatives of the Freezing Workers’ Union at the .works this morning, but were not "able to come to any settlement. Discussion centred upon the “ring” system of killing and certain suggestions in regard to the distribution of operations were made. Some of these the company agreed to, but after an adjournment at lunch time the delegates returned to the position that the ring must be operated with the same number of men as the chain, namely, 35, and would continue the discussion on no other basis. The company pointed out that a ring is three times the length of a chain, and in other countries is considered from the point of view of convenience to the workers and also mechanically an advance on the chain or any other method of handling the large numbers of sheep and lambs which it is necessary to kill at the peak of the season. Especially is it so for the rush of bobby calves, often up to 9000 or more per day in the calving period. The union has called out every worker in the factory, approximately 733 men and 134 boys and girls, although there are only 70 men involved in the operation of the ring at the present time. The company offered to facilitate the setting up of a disputes’ committee or reference to the court. “TIRED DF PETTY GRIEVANCES " LABOURERS DESIRE SEPARATE UNION AUCKLAND, Nov. 29. Claiming that they are tired of losing pay from disputes in which they have little interest and from

which they stand to gain nothing, many labourers at the Westfield Freezing Works favour breaking away from the Freezing Workers’ Union and forming a separate union. According to a statement to-night by a delegate’of one of the departments at the works meetings had already been held at which this action was supported. Under the present system, he said, the labourers were being frequently called upon to stop work in sympathy with the butchers, who were on much higher rates of pay, yet the labourers were gaining nothing. A large proportion of those who voted at the meeting on Monday did so out of a sense of loyalty and did not know what they were voting about.

“ We are absolutely sick and tired of the petty grievances that the chain has caused, and we want to break away from it,” the delegate said. “ Four or five men are at the bottom of all the trouble at Westfield, and we are convinced that with a union of our own we could carry on much more smoothly.” After the meeting on Monday the men in the department he represents held a meeting at which the proposal to break away was favoured, he added. A further meeting was held at the works to-day and was attended by labourers from several other departments. Nearly 100 were present. The scheme was further supported and many of those present said that other workers in their departments were of the same mind. The idea was to form a separate labourers’ union such as had existed in the pre-war days. A meeting of labourers would be held at the works tomorrow when the proposal would be further discussed.