WORK AT HOBSONVILLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21906, 15 September 1934, Page 14

WORK AT HOBSONVILLE

SEQUEL TO DISPUTE payment of sustenance REFUSED BY AUTHORITIES "It is out of the question that tho men who have refused work at the Hobsonvillc Air Base should receive sustenance payment pending the settlement of their dispute," said Mr. \\. Bromley, deputy-chairman of tho Unemployment Board, who spent some time in Auckland yesterday discussing the position with interested parties. "The men have 'walked out on a standard job and the responsibility is theirs." Mr. Bromley had a discusiuon yesterday afternoon with the Mayors of the three North Shore boroughs, Devonport, Birkenhead, and Northcote, from which most of the men who refused work at Hobsonville were drawn. Last evening he met Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, chairman of the citizens' committee which has interested itself in the work, and also Mr. F. P:. Lark, president of the Auckland Provincial Unemployed Workers' Association, which on Thursday advised the men to reject the proposals for "getting fit" allowances on the resumption of the work. "The matter is really out of the hands of the Unemployment Board," said Mr. Bromley in an interview. "The men are engaged by the Public Works Department on a standard job, which involves piecework. The rates for piecework are definitely laid down. The position now is that owing to a dispute over wages the men have left their jobs. It appears to me they left without any real attempt to adjust their grievances, and, although I think they were badly advised, they can have no claim on the Unemployment Board for sustenance. "I have been asked to arrange sustenance grants for the period of the dispute. To do so would be to establish a dangerous precedent. People in any employment could create fin industrial dispute, leave their work and demand sustenance until the dispute was settled. I have been asked to consider the plight of the wives and children of these men who have refused work. I have been through strikes and there has not been a strike yet. in which the women and children did not suffer. Mr. Bromley added that the men appeared to have acted precipitately. It took some time to settle down to piecework and the earnings of one week could not be held to be a fair standard for judging possible returns. He hoped tho matter would be settled at an ea»ly date.