FACTORY WORKERS' CONDITIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 October 1922, Page 6

FACTORY WORKERS' CONDITIONS.

0 (To the E3itor.) i Sir, —I notice in Thursday's paper ! a letter signed "Curd Walloper," a j real dinkum name for himself, and the1 j hard work, long hours to put in making i cheese, which lie tries to lead any sane | person to believe. Now, I have had' ', neveral years' experience in, factory ! work, and still have to find out where the harcl work conies" m in making I cheese, as he leads us to believe. JTe says the.more modern machinery comes into use^ the smaller the working staff gets. Nothing of the sort—one man to a vat in years gone by, one man to a yat nowadays, with agitators to stir it while he keeps an eye on the thermometer, etc. Now, he says he has started; work at half past" five in the morning, and never finished making cheese between the hours of seven and ten at night. "Well, I can sum that up in two words, viz., ba<s management. As for being in tbe packing room packing cheese till the small hours of the morning till the cockie rolls up once again, well I can't swal-, low that, as no factory manager would i ask any man to do the impossible, norj directors either. I think he must have been having a long night dance or a!. smoke concert when it goes that far.' We in our factory siart work at about half past six to seven in the morning, ; and finish at four to half past—not- so \ long hours as "Curd Walloper" does. The first job is to pull the fire together. to raise steam for the new day's work,! secondly raise vats,'get ohi-tes laid in their places for carrying the milk to , their respective vats, starter cans

washed tesdy for i&s foM&fWg. (ky'a _ starter—--a&out ten n?jftutes in all—and then into ftbe turning and packing rooms, but ifee. best staffer to use' Ss a little energy and elbotr grease, not standing idle seining yarissl and smok-» ing cigarette butb, A good 7 kit- of that is done nowadays, Our factory is a seven-vat one, between 700 and 800 galfcias each. Therefore we make about «0- large cheese a da? in the flusiiv aniL feasre nearly 900 and a 1000 a <2ay toT^ tnrn r besides about- 4<5 crat-es to make and pack up for export- Then he says we gut in for a 5s rise l per week aiid never got it. I think ft© snould haye 1 got: s superannuation for the rest of his life-, for I consider /3s 6d a day V>ig nroney for casuals wSo have not learnt a; trade, and who <?nly worked: nine hours a day. May I tell him, if he doesn't know yet, that cockies' produce has fallen 50 per cent, and more, besides Ms- loss on cattle, etc. As for butter,, mSk, cheese, etc., he is always entitled to Ms fair share, and I never heard of airy who had to pay for which he- was entitled to only when he got moTe thai* Ms share. About the land questions I think he is overstepping his mark,, and he had better keep off the land if lie thinks he will have a rosy time on it cutting boxthorn, feeding pigs, also another hundred odd jobs, etc-. As for turning cheese, lam waiting for. him to sign his name- to his letter, then I shall know who Be is and where he hiul^^jfljj^Jbu^ T don't think lie is one of the working cheesemakers of **"° /^o+ri/vt^-r om etc., EES PRICK rWe_had hoped.-to close this correspondence^ w!t ln^F' B!8TOr I published on ! page 8 yesterday but the letter whicft we print above^sifcched us in the after- | noon, too late", f^ inclusion in yesterday's issue, letter was in our j hands before Yesterday's Star was published, we think that it would be unj fair to the correspondent to leave his I contribution out. The correspondence is now closed.—Ed.] i . ■