WORKERS' WORRIES.

NZ Truth, Issue 181, 5 December 1908, Page 4

WORKERS' WORRIES.

A WAIL FROM WAINUI.

Complaint Against the Caterer.

No man can afford to quarrel with his bread and but.ter, and likewise as .a. cook is always the top-dog everywnere it is a stupendous blunder to fall 1 out with that important personage, as many who, through lengthy, perhaps, a lifetime, experience of liash-houses, will bear willing testimony to. Trouble witb a cook out at Wainui-o-mata, where a hew dam is being erected, has,, during the past week, led to > much unpleasantnessbetween employe* and employee and from" what has been stated to this impartial journal, the men had good reason for complaint. Messrs Martin,' Hurrell, and Snaddert are the contractors for the erection of- the dam, and the Lord onlyknows how many bosses there are not on the 'job, "but even then it seems that the camp cook is boss cock. This cook of caterer or whatever he calls himself, has contracted to feed the men, about thirty all told, -at 14s per week, and at the beginning the tucker was the just the best prog provided, . but then came a time when it was Irish stew for breakfast, Irish stew for dinner, and Irish stew under the thin whiskers of dry hash for tea, and .hard toilers and mpilers began to murmur and protest that , they could not keep going at. top on hash, etc., arid generally- they cursed the cook for the poor quality *of the food' dished up for them. More than. murmurs were beard, a petition signed by all the workers excepting one, who is alleged to hkye "curried" favor with the bosses, was drawn up, m which it was set forth that the caterer was subjecting the toil ers to unfair treatment, that the food supplied was of an inferior quality" airwas badly cooked, and praying that tl>e caterer should be invested with the order of the sack and that a new catsrei be en-aged. Now, this savors of higli (reason, and when, the contractors came on the scene, it is alleged tha<t '

A PIMPING CRAWLER GOT TO WORK and supplied the names of two, individuals who have been -instrumental m drawing up the petition, and the result was that these .two men go.t their time Moreover^ complaints nave -been made of the altogether iinsit'sfiictury s»tate of the bunk-house,* uhich is a shanty 28ft by 20ft, and; m which thirty men live, or rather pig. In Ihis Lunk-liouse is the dining-room and kitchen, and the various odors of a morning don t ieotmble a scent factory. ' It's a case of hold youi nose till you get out m the fresh- air We don't know who is responsible ,. for this. Perhaps it. is the contractors, ano if it is, then they had better make. inoi< -iuHable axvanyernents ' for the comfort <;f the workers, who are mk and not be-ists. The pi=ce has never l:e;n sw.ep.i : or scrubbed since work . commenced, and it looks very much as if there is no>.in : tention on the part of anybody to use '2 < little water for that n p cessary purpose Quite a 'great deal could be said on ttii matter, and "Truth" would first, lik< to know what the devil the bosses meai by sacking men because they . complain of the insults offered their stomachs by Hie caterer. It's the same old story .0 the pimping crawler and the boodle ■untinp: boss. .Some day the worker wil rise m his wrath and thenvthprb wi'Hx hftU to play. The worker .-.-is a lona individual,, and what -with, pinips j m his own ranks ■ and ,bos\es who /en d urage crav. tors and tale tellers anf who sack -Iperv simply lecause- they sttiv? , to be m.en^tfe v hrrhy-handed -son of to^ 1 has a U&£aifli "hard existence and it can ; not •hafdl^Mjfc wondered at that whentTir worker 'Slimes in!/o ?;o\ver, he process to make : ';thSiß power felt: ;