FREEZING DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17651, 11 December 1920, Page 8

FREEZING DISPUTE.

ATTITUDE OF THE MEN. REPLY TO EMPLOYERS. [BY TELEGBAFH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Friday. To-day Mr. Niall, secretary of the Freezing Workers' Federation, made the following reply to the statements contained in the letter received by him from the representatives of the owners— " The position is that the companies flatly refused to meet the representatives of the men to discuss the question of wages. They have laid down what they consider sufficient increase to the men and will not hear the men's side in refutation of their proposals. The companies' final offer has been referred to the men and has been turned down right throughout the Dominion, showing that what the companies claimed to be a generous offer is) Hot so regarded by the men in the industry. It has been dinned into the workers for the past eighteen months that they should get into • closer co-operation with the employers to discuss industrial matters, it being held that this would be of benefit to the workers and employers. But now that the Freezing Workers' Federation wish to do this the employers shut and bolt the gate on them and give them no opportunity of discussing what they claim to be fair and reasonable rates. There is no discrimination in favour of hourly hands, as suggested by the employers, because they do not earn nearly the same wages as' piece-workers, and, therefore, 22£ per cent, to hourly hands' is not nearly as great a concession as 20 per cent, to piece-workers. The freezing industry, according to the Prime Minister, is the most important industry in this country, and if the owners of freezing works are quite content to keep their works shut just at a time when the new season's meat should be going out of the country to balance the excess of imports over exports, well then, that is their own funeral, but it must be obvious to anyone closely connected with the commercial life of this country that it is a matter that concerns the whole of the Dominion-" •