ERROR OF THEIR WAYS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20318, 28 January 1928, Page 6

ERROR OF THEIR WAYS.

BUTCHERS ABANDON “GO-SLOW.” (Special to IJailv Times.) WANGANUI, January 27. Despite the fact that work is not too plentiful, the butchers at the Imlay Freezing Works took the risk of causing a dislocation of work by demanding a stopwork meeting once a month. Such . request was considered ridiculous in the eyes of the management, and • was promptly refused, and the men then went slow. On Wednesday night they discovered that their action edd not meet with the approval of about 400 fellow-workers who met and decided that the butchers should resume normal working conditions at once. The slaughtermen, however, objected to being dictated to in this way. After holding a meeting amongst themselves yesterday they agreed that they would still “go slow.” Then the management stepped in again, and the butchers were told that if normal work were not resumed as usual the Department of Labour would be called in. In the afternoon the men decided to alter their attitude, and they returned to work as usual. The management points out that not only was the output reduced, but stock had to be diverted to other works, and when that occurred there was always a danger that the trade connection would be lost. The port had suffered, the waterside workers had less cargo to load, and the men directly concerned had to take 7s or 8s a day less in wages. It was a good thing that the men had seen matters in the right light, and this had averted serious trouble.