ABATTOIRS DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17846, 29 July 1921, Page 7

ABATTOIRS DISPUTE.

COUNCIL'S FIRM STAND.

SLAUGHTERING BY CONTRACT

SYSTEM TO BE ADOPTED.

The dispute in progress at the city abattoirs was ventilated at the meeting of the City Council last evening. A number of slaughtermen were in the public gallery, and early in th e proceedings a letter was read from Mr. J. F. W. Dickson, suggesting that the matter be referred to Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., for settlement. The writer stated that if this were done the men in the meantime were willing to go back to work and chop as heretofore. The letter was formally received.

At a later stage an exhaustive report covering the matter was submitted by the Markets Committee. This recited the circumstances of the trouble from the outset, stating that owing to the failure oi the men to remain in their employment tho work had not been fully or normally carried out, but there had not been any serious shortage of fresh meat, as the master butchers had done their own killing and were still it. There were 12 applicants for the vacant position;, but these men were presumably deterred from working by the former employees, and also, m the opinion of the committee, by other influences. The report continued that the master butchers had on several occasions approved of the firm stand taken by the council, and on Tuesday last had written urging the council, in the event of the dispute not being settled this week, to arrange for the slaughtering to be done by contract, as was being done at Wellington and Dunedin. The committee asserted that the men had never at any time been locked out, nor by the action of the committee, had they been removed from their work. So long as the men had remained at their work the committee would have been prepared to have had any dispute referred to and settled by conciliation, but as the men had abandoned their work without any cause whatever, the committee had adhered to the decision of the council of June 17, and the men were not now recognised as employees of tho council. The committee recommended that the suggestion of the master butchers to let the slaughtering out on contract be adopted. It had been endorsed by the new manager, Mr. Rugg. The council might consider that with the adoption of this recommendation the difficulty at the abattoirs would be overcome, and that matters would be quickly restored to normal and satisfactory conditions. v Regarding a communication from the employees' union, notifying its infftntion to refer the case to the conciliation commissioner, the committee recommended that a reply be sent to the effect that the men having abandoned their work were not now employees of the council. There could, therefore, be no dispute, and there certainly had never been any lock-out. The chairman of the committee, Mr. J. B. Paterson, moved the adoption of its recommendations.

Mr. H. N. Bagnall opposed the motion on the ground that, under the agreement with the men, the committee should have referred the dispute to the Conciliation Commission. , Mr. T. Bloodworih also opposed the motion, saying that in his opinion the men had been locked out by the action of the council's officials. They had offered themselves for work on the second day of the trouble, and there were no animals at the abattoirs for them to slaughter. If the council did not wish to settle the dispute under the terms of the agreement with the former employees, it should take a secret ballot of the master butchers and of the men concerned. Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., said that as a$ member of the Markets Committee, he disassociated himself from its recommendations. A clause in the agreement provided for conciliation in any dispute, first by a committee of the parties, and then, failing a decison by them, by the commissioner. Mr. W. J. Holdsworth said an opportunity had been given to the men to get over the difficulty, but they had not -accepted it. He therefore supported the report. The motion adopting the committee's recommendations was carried by 18 votes t*> 3.