DELAYED SHIPMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 304, 21 November 1936, Page 14

DELAYED SHIPMENT.

DAIRY COY.’S STATEMENT. MASTEItTON, Nov. 20. An announcement tliat the suppliers were prepared to leave the position to the sense of fair play of the watersiders was made to-nigiit for the Hopelands Co-oxierative Dairy Co., Ltd., Woodville, after a special meeting of directors at which, consideration was given the case of a dismissed employee and the relation his dismissal had to the holding up of cheese irom the factory by the watersiders of Wellington. It was stated that small dairy farmers and factory employees, who had never injured the watersiders, would share in any loss caused the company by the holding up of its produce. Charges of victimisation and intimidation were denied. The following statement was issued for the company: “At a special meeting held to-day the directors of the company again fully considered the question of the dismissal by the manager of one of his assistants. Special consideration was also given to the written statement _by the employee concerned. The position was viewed from every angle with a view to discovering an avenue by which the employee might be reinstated. All relevant facts were considered and the conclusion was reluctantly arrived at that in the interests of the other members of the staff, of the factory manager, of the suppliers and of the company, it was impossible for reinstatement to be made. “The company had no desire to do injury to the man and any publicity which may have beeij given to his affairs has not been the fault of his real friends, but of his so-called friends, who have proved to be his worst enemies, in thought, word and deed. In his letter he reiterated his statement that he fully respects the directors of the company and bears them no illwill. He regrets the trouble caused and states that it was not altogether his fault. He further states that it was not his wish that the cheese was held up by the watersiders at Wellington. He further states that he did not enlist their, or any other union’s, sympathy. “The directors contend that talk about ‘intimidation,’ ‘victimisation,’ and ‘the law of the jungle’ is just so much hot air bv people who pretend to be friends of the factory workers and the watersiders, hut who are really their deadly enemies in the long run. “Any loss that the company will Ire forced to bear will be shared by the employees’ parents and brothers as well as by other suppliers, all of whom are farmers in a small way, and also by other members of the staff, all of whom are members of the Dairy Factory Workers’ Union, and are prepared to give those interested a plain statement of the facts leading up to the trouble. They will also complete a declaration that victimisation or intimidation was not offered them by the manager or the directors. “The suppliers leave this matter to the sense of fair play of the watersiders. They feel they are entitled to fair play from a body of men whose boast has always been their sportsmanship, and who, moreover, have never been' injured by the small dairy-farm-ers supplying the Hopelands factory.”