KAIAPOI FREEZING WORKS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 11 January 1944, Page 4

KAIAPOI FREEZING WORKS

ISSUE OF SUMMONSES

Christchurch, Jan. 10.

Cases against 33 men at the Kaiapoi freezing works, have been set down for hearing in the Magistrate's Court, Christchurch, on 18th January. Summonses were served on the slaughtermen at the works this afternoon.

The Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. Webb, said this evening that action would still be taken against the slaughtermen, though they had returned to work. The tribunal would be set up to consider the dispute and workers and employers would be asked to nominate three representatives each. If they could not agree on a chairman, he would probably ask the Conciliation Commissioner. Mr S. Ritchie, to preside.

The slaughtermen went on strike because they claimed one of their members had been victimised. This man who was in the army when he was directed to employment in the freezing industry Was arrested in Christchurch on Sunday on a charge of being absent without leave, and will be taken back to Trentham. He had been ordered by the National Service Department in Wellington to leave camp at Trentham and report to Christchurch for employment in the freezing industry. There was no vacancy for him at the Kaiapoi works and normally he would have returned to the army unless directed elsewhere. —P.A.