RELIEF WORKERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21646, 17 May 1932, Page 7

RELIEF WORKERS

AN INEFFECTUAL STRIDE OFFICIAL LABOUR DESIRES SETTLEMENT. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 16. _ Slightly over 1000 unemployed men are at work on the relief jobs this morning out of over 2000 who were due to start. There was no picketing. All the jobs were visited by the police, and there was no evidence of any interference with the men at work. A deputation from a masa meeting of unemployed relief workers numbering 1100 waited this morning on the Alliance of Labour, the Trades and Labour Council, and the local Labour Representation Committee. An official report issued later stated that the unemployed had the full support of the Labour movement in Wellington, and every effort would be made to bring about a satisfactory settlement of the dispute. Further conferences are pending. POSITION IN CHRISTCHURCH STRIKES PROVE A FAILURE. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 16. Of 1520 unemployed men who # should have commenced work on relief jobs in Christchurch, Lyttelton, and environs this morning 315 responded to the call to strike as a protest against the new rates of pay. There was little picketing and the police organisation in preventing it was very efficient. The biggest group of strikers were those employed by the Railways Department. Of 166 men employed, 106 struck. Eighty of the 106 were engaged clearing weeds off the Middleton railway yards, which are not now used. At Lyttelton 43 out of 52 struck, and 40 out of 268 employed by the City Council joined the strike, although paid with the City Council subsidy at the rate of 14s 6d a day. At Riccarton 25 relief workers employed by the borough all struck. On all other works the strikers have numbered quite a small proportion of those employed. The relief workers’ strike called here for to-day appears to have failed completely, as on many jobs 90 per cent, of the men are working. '• Only 200 men failed to report for duty out of the 1400 so instructed, and work is proceeding everywhere without interruption. The Strike Committee still expresses confidence, but elsewhere the belief exists that the strike has signally failed.