FACTORY WORKERS' CONDITIONS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 12 October 1922, Page 5

FACTORY WORKERS' CONDITIONS

(To the Editor.) . Sir,—l noticed in yesterday's edition of your paper .a column by an "ExFactory Hand,'' who' goes so far as to insinuate that the present-day y cheesemaker has rather an easy job. His statement that agitators, . etc., have been installed in the Majority of modern cheese factories is most probably true, but that does not saY that the cheesemaker has an easier time or has less work-to do; in fact, with the introduction of the above-mentioned machine^ the staffs have been cat down, thereby making every bit as much;to do as'when rakes and racks were in vogue. Re the Jong hours /and hard work, I have had several years', experience as a cheesemaker, and can say that I have wjorked as hard, if hot harder, and worked as long hours as he himself; has done. In one dairy company I worked] tor we used to start at half-past five in the morning; and were never finished making the cheese until anywhere between/ the hours of i seven and ten at night. After that !we would get to. and start, packing cheese for export, working on until it was time to start taking in milk in the morning. This night work used to occur every alternate night, and went on> | for several months until we refused to do it any longer, and the cookies wondered why. We put in a^ application for ass a week rise. Did we get it? No. Bid we get -any extra pay for the nights we toiled until we could hardly keep our eyes open to get their produceaway? No, nothing but our usual 'pay—los a day, and if we wanted any I butter, cream, or cheese it was stopped off our pay, and the "cockies" receiving 2s B£d a, lb butter-fat and a bonus to come at the end of the season.,, If they can't make their farms pay it serves them right for not using" a bit of foresight in seeing /that butter-fat could not possibly remain at 2s 6d. per lb,_ and also the ridiculous prices they j paid for the land^ in some instances as high as £200 per acre. If. he thinks we are having such a rosy time" why doesn't he go back to the factory. All we ask for is a fair, thing, and do we get it ? No, in ninevtenths of the companies throughout New Zealand we* don't. I may also mention that I have iurned 600 up to 1000 cheese before breakfast.—J am, etc., CURD WALLOPER. October 11, 1922. ■!■

'/To the Editor.) .. a Sir, —Allow me a bit of space in answer to "Ex-Factory Hands letter. By the way he has written it ?s a wonder to "me he ever gave up factory work—that is. if he believes it is 75 per cent, better now than it was when he worked in a, factory. The way his . letter reads he must have worked .ri^ a ' one-vat factory, when he sneaks of five * minutes' work and ten minutes'- snell. -.:, ■He' forgets that most factories have ' .seven or eight vats, and by the time ■ one has turned the lot it is start over , again. Of course, if the ffictorv is : smaller there are less men. They allow ; one man one vat, whether it is a six, ':■ seven, or eight hundred gallon vat, and it "Ex-Factory Hand" was still work- \ ; ing,in a factory it would be most likely that he would get an 800 gallon vat. As regards agitators, one has not to rake vats, but «.he is not sitting around, wing something else to do cleaning windows, washing walls or cleaning out, drains, or perhaps packing cheese, which the ■companies do not employ a man elsewhere to look after. But he forgets that the cow cockies have their little i bit of machinery in the cowshed nowadays. Perhaps their work is not 75 .per cent, easier. My experience in a factory is to get finished between four and

half-past, only have twenty minutes for dinner, and then go and lean over the vat for five minutes; of course, generally start as other tradesmen are getting out of bed. He is right. We get all sorts of tradesmen; but in the majority of cases they are men who cannot' get work at their own trade and very seldom stick it, especially when the Christmas -holidays come along, where the lucky eh'eesemaker has to work and most other tradesmen get their holidays on full pay. In my experience we have never been rushed with men, and in most cases work short-handed. Tn conclusion. I must say .that "Ex-Factory Hand" was giving good advice to those who did not know what it was to work in a factory, and he says be had to turn four hundred cheese before brenk- , fast. All outside labourers have brenkfast before they start work, and then they start at eight oVlock, where we start at six. • Don't you think we aT-e entitled to get out at three? Thanking you for your valuable space, —I am, etc EXPERIENCED.