TOBACCO STRIKE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21924, 19 January 1946, Page 6

TOBACCO STRIKE

MEN AT MEAT WORKS ONE-DAY STOPPAGE PROTEST AT SHORTAGE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 19. Slaughtermen at the Gear Meat Company's works at Petone resumed work at 1 o’clock yesterday, after a one-day strike as a protest against the reduction in the supplies of tobacco they receive from the Ministry of Supply. They were due to receive an allocation of tobacco on Thursday and in the morning 90 slaughtermen held a stop-work meeting and advised the management that unless the supplies were received by noon they would strike.

The tobacco did not arrive and the men stopped work. When supplies arrived later in the day it was found that the quota had been reduced to half a packet each. Although the slaughtermen remained on strike yesterday morning, the remainder of the employees worked until 10 a.m., when a meeting was held which decided to send a deputation to the Minister requesting a weekly delivery. They then returned to work until a reply is received. Five thousand head of stock awaited slaughter when killing stopped on Thursday, and by yesterday morning the total had risen to 13.000.

No trouble is expected, at the Wellington Meat Export Corhpanv’s Ngahauranga works, where a union official said that a tobacco strike was unlikely.

PROTEST AT AUCKLAND (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 19. “As a protest against the Government’s inability to ensure adequate supplies of tobacco, the workers at the Auckland municipal abattoirs went on strike yesterday. The slaughtermen began their duties at the usual time, but stopped after a quarter of an hour and after the labourers had cleaned up a meeting was held, lasting half an hour. After it had been announced that the meeting would be resumed at !5 a.m. on Monday the men returned to their homes.

It is understood that the men have no quarrel with the Auckland City Council, the dissatisfaction being solely concened with the shortage of tobacco.

It is not expected that any serious results will follow the strike, provided the men resume work before Tuesday, though some butchers may be shortsupplied on Monday

CANADIAN CIGARETTES

The cigarette shortage will shortly be relieved by substantial importations from overseas. One Wellington distributor said that he had been granted a license to import 43,000,000 Canadian cigarettes, 30,000,000 of which would be arriving toward the end of February. The balance was expected in April. The shipments would consist of five brands well known in Canada and all made from Virginian tobacco. The quantity allowed on this license represents only nine days of New Zealand’s normal consumption, but, when used to supplement the existing supply, should be sufficient to ease the shortage for several weeks.