OVER AT LAST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21242, 24 January 1931, Page 14

OVER AT LAST.

MILLION POUND DISPUTE. The partial stoppage of the wool textile industry in the West Riding, which began bn April 9, has been in a process of rapid collapse for some days (says the Daily Mail). The end will be hastcnded by the decision of the Woolcombers’ Society, the Wool Yarn and Warehouse Workers’ Union, and the Yorkshire Managers’ and Overseers’ Society, to go back to work. It now looks as if there will be something like a stampede back to work when the mills reopen after the holidays. The three unions mentioned represent about 10,000 operatives, but a big proportion of these had already returned to work at the lower rates of wages imposed by the employers and based on the Macmillan report. The reductions proposed in this report were 9.25 per cent, for time workers and 8.75 per cent, for pieceworkers. s The dispute has cost the operatives nearly £1,000,000 in wages, has brought some of the trade unions to a state of bankruptcy, and has lost directly between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 in trade to the West Riding.