VICTUALLERS ADAMANT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26589, 11 October 1947, Page 8

VICTUALLERS ADAMANT

WEST COAST HOTEL BOYCOTT NO CHANGE IN POSITION Special to the Daily Times GREYMOUTH,- Oct. 10. There has been no apparent change in the beer boycott which is being backed by various industrial organisations throughout the West Coast since the West Coast Trades Council took up the fight at the commencement of the new price rise to 7d on October 1. It is stated that trade at the Greymouth hotels appeared to be building up again, though it is still below normal. . . . , Hotels, in centres of mining localities especially, however, are feeling the effect of the boycott. The Trades Council has received a number of telegrams of congratulation from the New Zealand Waterside ‘Workers’ _ Union, the New Zealand Bakers’ Union the Wellington Trades Council, the New Zealand Painters’ Union, the Wellington Drivers’ Federation, and the New Zealand Clothing Trades Union. While the Greymouth branch of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association maintains its silence and refuses to make any official comment on the position beyond expressing the determination of the members to retain the new charges it is understood that they have made plans to maintain this attitude. It was stated to-day that the Westland Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union meeting, which was attended by 44 members and is representative of 400 employees, was practically hostile to the action of the members of the Trades Council which had sponsored the boycott. This meeting, by 40 votes to 2, carried a resolution strongly opposing the boycott. A representative of the Greymouth Licensed Victuallers is reported to have left Greymouth for Wellington and he will, it is believed, place the case of the district publicans before the Dominion organisation which has control of a fund to which local publicans contribute. This fund was established to support the interests of the trade. ' tteip*from this fund, it is stated, may be forthcoming particularly in the country areas where trade has been seriously affected by the boy-, cott of workers who comprise the greater part of the population. The association’s representative will return to Greymouth to-morrow. In the meantime the Greymouth association will' make no official statement on the matter.