The Hawera Star. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1934. DAIRY FACTORY WORKERS.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 17 September 1934, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1934. DAIRY FACTORY WORKERS.

Delivered every evening: by 5 o’olook in Hawera, Maiiaia. Kaupokoaui. OtakcliOi Oeo, Pihai.ia, Opunake, Eltham. Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri. Mahce. Lowgarth. Manutahi, Kakarair.ea. Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Whenuakura. Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara. Ohangid, Meremere. Praaer Boad and Ararata

It was most gratifying indeed to learn in Saturday’s issue of the “Star” that, despite the depressing conditions ruling in the dairy industry, the employers and dairy factory workers of Taranaki have been able, at this juncture, to complete negotiations which began eight years ago towards improving working conditions for the men. By this agreement, which gives a six-day week to workers in six-vat cheese factories, Taranaki has given a lead to the whole of the New Zealand dairying industry. The six-day week was not previously unknown in Taranaki cheese factories, but until now it has been enjoyed only in isolated instances where the directors themselves have offered concessions. Without doubt, the pioneering efforts of. a few factory directorates in this matter have laid the foundations of the agreement finalised on Saturday. It is nearly eight years since overtures were first made in this connection and, curiously enough for an industrial matter of this nature, they came from the employers’ side when Mr T. A. Winks, chairman of the Taranaki Federation of Co-operative Dairy Factories, put forward suggestions for the improvement of working conditions in the factories. The suggestion was purely a personal one at the time and did not commit other directorates in any way. It was so novel that it was viewed with something very much like suspicion in some quarters where it should have made an instant appeal; the “Star” well remembers the difficulty it experienced in trying to get the employees’ representatives to discuss the proposition. The seed sown so longago has now borne fruit —and, what is distinctly curious and entirely praiseworthy, it has come into bearing under the most adverse conditions. Eight years ago the industry was economically in a better position to institute reforms than it is to-day. Then it had just emerged, or was about to emerge, from the “control” era and it had not run into that that stormy patch of weather brewed by controversies over ‘ ‘ standardisation, ” “yield,” “quality” and the clozen-and-one other troubles which have beset the industry. It says a great deal for the faith of the industry in its future that it is willing now to institute improved conditions. These improvements, though they do not entail the payment of wage increases, will add something to the labour costs over the whole province, for it is estimated that some 100 to 150 additional men will be employed throughout the province as a result of the decision to reduce the working week to •six days in the larger factories. The industry throughout the province will not lose by the new bargain it has made; on the contrary, there should be some very distinct gains. Dairy factory workers, like any other workers, work better as a result of an occasional break ; they are less likely to grow “stale” on the job and more likely to take that personal interest and pride in their work which are so necessary if the farmer-pro-prietor is to get the best class of manufactured product from his milk.