FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 306, 24 November 1932, Page 7

FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE.

LONGBURN TO OPEN WITH FREE LABOUR. Unionists having been offered the opportunity of resuming at the Longburn freezing works when the season opens next Thursday, and having declined to accept the terms offered, operations will be commenced with free labour, it was stated by the works management to-day. It is not anticipated that there will be any difficulty in obtaining all the men required and that plenty who are willing to work will come forward. The Dominion dispute remains unsettled and in deciding to employ free labour the Longburn works will bo acting similarly to others in the Dominion. The number of men to be employed at Longburn when the season opens will be between 40 and 50. SIX MEN IN COURT. FREE LABOUR DISPUTE. Per Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 23. Incidents at Waitara were the subject of charges against six former employees of Borthwick’s freezing works. The men were charged with attempting unlawfully to restrain Patrick Savage and others from doing something they had a legal right to do by wrongfully following them in a disorderly. manner in Queen Street and with using insulting language. The hearing was adjourned till Saturday. It is alleged the accused men interfered with free labourers. Close questioning by a detective elicited a denial from all the defendant witnesses that they were boycotting Waitara firms who supplied free labourers at Borthwick’s.

KILLING IN CANTERBURY. FIVE WORKS OPERATING. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 23. No notable change is reported in the freezing works dispute. Both employers and union representatives state that they are satisfied with the position as it stands. It is reported from the companies’ representatives that at the five freezing works which were opened yesterday killing had proceeded satisfactorily and the labour available was sufficient to cope with the stock offering. Owing to the satisfactory nature of the work performed, it is stated, and the advent of larger quantities of stock, it is likely the boards will be more extensively manned in the near future. The men already taken on if their work is satisfactoryare promised preference of employment.. The secretary of the union stated to-day that it had been reported to him that some union men who reported for work yesterday did not turn up to-day. At a meeting of the Farmers Union to-day the question was faised as to the eligibility for relief work of men who refused employment at freezing works, and it was decided to ask the Labour Department for a ruling on the question. The meeting strongly urged that such men should not receive relief work.