WHO RULES?

Evening Star, Issue 24096, 17 January 1942, Page 10

WHO RULES?

SLAUGHTERMEN WALK OUT ANOTHER CHALLENGE TO GOVERNMENT (P.A.) AUCKLAND, January 17. Following immediately on the Westfield Freezing Works dispute, 17 .slaughtermen at the Auckland City Council's abattoir walked out early this afternoon in consequence of the council’s refusal of a demand that it should raise the wages of the abattoir assistants or labourers. The 42 labourers employed at the abattoir remained until 5 o’clock for cleaning up and then stopped work until further notice. Some hours in the morning had been occupied by a stop-work meeting. Mr 0. L. Hunter, Conciliation Commissioner at Auckland, visited the works and addressed the men. It is expected that he will continue negotiations for a settlement over the week-end. The mayor (Mr J. A. C. Allnm) communicated by telephone with the Minister of Labour (Mr Webb) at Wellington. The mayor said later that the abattoir labourers were subject to au award made last May and having a terra of two years. They were paid 2r. 7d an hour, a rate which compared favourably with 2s 5d to 2s 7d received under another award by local bodies labourers in the Auckland metropolitan area. The work of these latter men was graded in the award according to difficulty and the amount of skill or experience required. When the claim for an increase was made during the currency of the award by a comparatively small group the council naturally had to consider a much larger number of employees who might be indirectly affected. The secretary of the men’s union (Mr W. E. Sill) said he had no comment to make on the dispute, except that it had been in progress for some time. It is not expected that the stoppage will have any effect on the supply of meat if work is not resumed on Monday. Most of the killing at the abattoir is done on Wednesdays and Thursdays, during and immediately after the weekly stock sales at Westfield, and the three remaining days of the working week are used mainly for meeting the needs of small butchers. The labourers at the abattoir are said to tally less than 40 hours'a week: on ordinary time as a rule, but against this they" often work overtime on the two busy days Even if the abattoir went out of business for a long period Auckland could obtain abundant meat by drawing on freezing companies’ stocks. ° GOVERNMENT ASKED TO ACT. A request for the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, to como to Auckland in connection with theTecent action of the Westfield freezing workers is contained in a telegram sent to Mr Fraser to-day by the Loader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, who is visiting Auckland. The text of the message is as follows: “ There is seething public indignation throughout the Auckland province over the flouting of the emergency regulations and the defiance of constitutional government by the Westfield freezing workers, who have broken the law with impunity. The farmers and townspeople have had to submit to extreme inconvenience and financial loss for the want, of petrol, _ and if the Government is weakly going to give in to those who illegally strike it is tantamount to putting a premium on lawlessness and a penalty on patriotism. ' • “ I urge you immediately to proceed to Auckland and tell the law breakers once and for all that the law is going to be enforced regardless of occupation or industry, and that the Government and not the freezing workers is going to run New Zealand.”-