BUTTER AND CHEESE WORKERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9133, Issue 9133, 4 February 1910, Page 5

BUTTER AND CHEESE WORKERS

LOOKING FOR A NEW AWARD

SOME PROBABLE ALTERATIONS,

For some time past the Butter and Cheese Workers' Union of the Wellington province has been busy framing, demands for a new_ award to be applied for at the next sitting of the Arbitration Court, to bo held in Palnierston in March. It will be remembered that last year an award was made, but it did not meet with a great deal of approval on the part of the workers, and since then an energetic organising campaign has been carried on, with the result that the Union is now considerably stronger than

ever before in its history. The demands are still under consideration, and have not yet been made public, but it is understood that some drastic changes are being asked for. In the matter of hours, for instance, the position at present is that in both cheese and butter factories the maximum is placed at 70 per week of seven days, as it was considered by the Court that ten hours' work per day was necessary for the making of good cheese, and as some factories made both butter and cheese no differentiation was made. The Union proposes now to ask that in butter factories the hours be. set down at 52 per week from October to March

and 44 for the rest of the year, the working days per week to bo six instead of seven, while in cheese factories they demand a maximum of 60 hours. It is

contended by the Union that at present the 70 hours' limit is frequently exceeded owing to there being no proper system of time-keeping. An attempt is also to be made to minimise Sunday work as much as possible. Wages, of course, form an important part of the new demands. At present adult workers (excluding factory managers) are paid from 37s 6d to £2 10s. On to this is to be added sleeping accommodation allowances. Considerable

friction appears to have been produced by these allowances. Employers under the prosent award are supposed to provide sleeping accommodation, and failing that the allowance is fixed by mutual consent. The Union contends that in

that mutual arrangement the worker usually comes off second best. It, therefore, proposes to reverse the principal operating in the present award, and instead of the wage being fixed and the allowance added, it proposes that a higher wage be fixed, and where accommodation is provided the allowance be deducted. Thus the wages asked for for adult workers range from £2 5s to £3 ss, and it is suggested that where a cottage is provided for a married man his salary should be reduced by 7s a week, and when suitable accommodation is provided for a single inan his wage should be reduced by 2s 6d. Two other proposals that will meet with considerable opposition are preference for Unionists and fixing the proportion of youths to adult workers in factories.

There is a probability that a conference will be arranged between the parties, in order to settle the matter without going to Court.