BREADLESS DAYS
MANY AUCKLAND PEOPLE FIVE-DAY WEEK DISPUTE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 4. Queues were formed outside Auckland bakers’ shops this morning as the result of the decision of the bakery employees to work a five-day 40rhour week, excluding Saturday work. Many prospective customers were turned away empty-handed, as only the normal Friday’s supply of bread was baked last night. Most of the shops had nothing left to offer by the middle of the morning. To many people this meant that there would be no bread for three days — to-day, Saturday, and Sunday. The secretary of the Baking Trades Employees’ Union, Mr F. H. Bourke, said this morning that the men were prepared to bake sufficient bread for the week-end. but the master bakers would not allow them to do this yesterday. Only one day’s supply was, therefore, baked, after which the men were knocked off.
“The present unfortunate deadlock and its result in an acute public inconvenience is not of the master bakers’ seeking. The legal and constitutional position at present is that a 40-hour week is already in operation, and the industry is legally working to it. except that the hours are spread over six days,” said Mr H. P. Burton, vice-president of the Master Bakers’ Association. “The men have refused to work on Saturdays, and have demanded a five-day week. The baking of bread on Fridays sufficient for a three-day week-end can be done only by working long hours, for which the employers would have to pay overtime. The employers are not prepared to accept the illegal refusal of the men to work, and therefore the normal day’s bread was baked to-day. There will be no bread to-morrow. The matter is now one for the Government.”
Asked to comment on the suggestion that the employees wished to bake three days’ bread last night, but were not permitted to do so, Mr Burton said the proposition had i not been put to the association, and so far the question of submitting the dispute to arbitration had not been discussed.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19460105.2.45
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 4
Word Count
340BREADLESS DAYS Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 4
Using This Item
Allied Press Ltd is the copyright owner for the Otago Daily Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Allied Press Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.