STOREMEN AND PACKERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19202, 19 June 1924, Page 6

STOREMEN AND PACKERS.

A DOMINION DISPUTE. CONCILIATION COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS. (Pee United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 18. The first sitting- of a Dominion Conciliation Council was held in Christchurch to-day. Tire dispute concerned the New Zealand Federation of Storemen and Packers’ Industrial Association of Workers and the various employers in the industry in the dominion. The men employed in the wool, grain, and hide stores are those concerned in the dispute. Thet;e were more than 250 employers cited, covering the industry in Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr W. H. Hagger, presided, and the assessors were:—For the workers — Messrs W. Miller (Auckland), S. Donkin (Wellington), H. Worral (Christchurch), W, Herbert (Dunedin), H. Dyson (Wellington), and R. Lammas (Blenheim); for the employers —Messrs Geo. T. Stevens (Invercargill), Leicester Watson (Christchurch), W. R. C. (invin (Wellington), L. W. Gilbert (Wellington), C. H. Hewlett (Christchurch), and B. H. Hammond (New Zealand Employers’ Federation). Mr Haggor explained that it was the first occasion on which a dominion depute had been heard by the Conciliation Council under section 2 of the 1922 amendment of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act.

In the early stages of the dispute the assessors were inclined to stick to their own proposals, and on the first consideration of the proposals seriatim very few of them were agreed to. Later on in the day, however, more progress was made, and a good number of matters were settled. Mr Hammond made certain offers on behalf of tiro employers in respect of the points unsettled, and those were held over till next day.