Strike May Extend

Northern Advocate, 20 August 1938, Page 6

Strike May Extend

i Per Press Association. copvnght .] CHRISTCHURCH, This'' Day. The action of 600 employees of the Westfield Freezing Co. in striking because they objected to conditions in their dressing-room was the subject of comment this morning by Mr. C. G. Wilkins, secretary of the North Island and South Island Freezing Co.’s Association,

The dispute, said Mr, Wilkin, concerned the locker accommodation at Westfield. In the Dominion Freezing works awards 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. 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 fixed October 6 for the hearing, so that the questions of the lockers was sub judice. Mr. Wilkin emphasised the serious nature of the dispute. In the Auckland district freezing works operated continuously for the killing of sheep and lambs, pigs, cattle and bobby calves. * The bobby calves held at the works were only a few days old, and thus could not be fed. Unless they could be killed they would starve to death.

It is understood from local information that there is a possibility of the dispute spreading to affect works in Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and the Wairarapa.