FREEZING DISPUTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 224, 20 August 1938, Page 11

FREEZING DISPUTE.

STOPPAGE AT WESTFIELD. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Aug. 19. Over 600 workers, including girls, employed at the Westfield freezing works refused to start work this morning because they objected to the dressing room accommodation, which they considered was not in the terms of' the award. No work was done by them today, part of the day being occupied by meetings which were adjourned until to-morrow. * Failure to start work, which is believed ,to have been the result of a decision made on Wednesday, came at a time when 4000 bobby calves were awaiting slaughter, and as they cannot be fed an unfortunate situation has been created. With a scratch gang of foremen and other permanent employees, the company is endeavouring to kill as many as possible. Work proceeded most of last night, but it is stated that some of the bobby calves will undoubtedly die from hunger and privation. The company made an appeal to the slaughtermen to resume work until they had killed the bobby calves, but without result. It is also understood that the Minister of Labour (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) made an appeal in a telegram to the men, not only to resume work until their complaint could be investigated, but in any case to kill the bobby calves. Mr Armstrong, who pointed out that the action of the men was embarrassing the Government, stated that the losses caused by the failure to slaughter the calves would fall not upon the Westfield Freezing Co., Ltd., but upon the farmers who had consigned them to the works. Rakes of trucks closely packed, with bobby calves stood at the sidings at the works throughout the day. The bleating of the calves was loud and continuous. Another problem then facing the company was the disposal of the large numbers of carcases of calves and cattle killed on the previous day which were awaiting boning. A meeting of the workers was addressed by an inspector of the Labour Department and also by Mr W. E. Sill (secretary of the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union). Workers employed in the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Co., Ltd.’s Southdown works and also at the works at Westfield of R. and W. Hellaby, Ltd., decided at meetings to-day that they would refuse to kill any of the hobby calves consigned to the Westfield Freezing Co. works.

POSITION EXPLAINED.

TROUBLE MAY SPREAD. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 20. The action of 600 employees of the Westfield ‘freezing works in striking because tjiey objected to conditions in their .dressing rooms was the subject of comment this morning by Mr C. G. Wilkin, secretary of-the North Island and South Island Freezing Companies’ Associations. The dispute, said Mr Wilkin, concerned the locker accommodation at Westfield. .In the Dominion Freezing Works Award- there was a clause stipulating that ‘the workers' should be supplied with adequate locker accommodation. Lockers of adequate proportions had' been installed at- considerable expense by the company. These lockers were approximately 3ft by 15ft by 13ft. The inspector of awards at Auckland had filed a case for interpretation by the Arbitration Court as to whether these dimensions could be considered adequate. The Court had fixed October C for the hearing so that the question of the lockers was - su jl Mr e 'Wilki„ emphasised the nature of the dispute. ?n the An lam l district ofrfiwp and cont.m.oi.sb’, V.Vie a)1(I bo W>v calves following Tn sequence. The bobbv calves held at the works were only a few Hvs old. and thus could not bo fed Unless they could be killed they would j starve to death. . It is understood from local informa-, tion that there is a possibility of ithedispute spreading to affect works in I Taranaki," Hawke’s Bay and Wai- j rarapa. I