RETURN TO WORK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25430, 11 January 1944, Page 2

RETURN TO WORK

KAIAPOI SLAUGHTERMEN ACCEPTANCE OF TRIBUNAL (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Jan 10. The slaughtermen who have been on strike at the North Canterbury Sheep Farmers’ Co-operative _ Company’s meat works at Kaiapoi since Tuesday afternoon resumed work at 8 o’clock this morning, pending the hearing of the dispute by the tribunal which the Minister of Labour (Mr P. C. Webb) said would be set up. An official statement says that at a meeting of the slaughtermen the following resolution was carried unanimously:—“We slaughtermen of the Kaiapoi Freezing Works have decided to resume work pending a quick settlement of our dispute through the channels offered by thp Minister of Labour. We take this action solely in an endeavour to accede to the wishes of the majority of the members of our branch of the union, and we are not influenced in our decision in any way by the threats of prosecution or other outside influences.” In accordance with the Government’s decision to prosecute the strikers, the cases against the 33 men have been set down for hearing in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch on January 18. The summonses were served on the slaughtermen at the works this afternoon. The Minister of Labour, Mr P. C. Webb, said this evening .that action would still be taken against the slaughtermen although they had returned to work. A tribunal would be set up to consider the dispute, and the workers and the employers would be asked to nominate three representatives each. If they could not agree on a chairman he would probably ask the Conciliation Commissioner, Mr is. Ritchie, to preside. , The slaughtermen went on strike because they claimed that one of their members had been victimised. This man, who was in the army when he was directed to employment in the freezing industry, was arrested in Christchurch yesterday on a charge of being absent without leave, and will be taken back to Trentham. ,He had been ordered by the National 'Service Department in Wellington to leave camp at Trentham and report in Christchurch for employment in the ’freezing industry. There was no vacancy for him at the Kaiapoi works, and normally he would have returned to the army unless directed elsewhere.