CONTROL OF UNION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19803, 3 December 1938, Page 13

CONTROL OF UNION

DISRUPTIVE INFLUENCES?

WESTFIELD WORKERS

SYSTEM OF TAKING VOTES

Disruptive influences of a small but controlling section of the union in Westfield were regarded as one of the principal, factors contributing to the industrial unrest at the freezing.works by. a well-informed slaughterman. Stressing the fact that employees had lost about £3OOO in ceasing work this Week to gain nothing that could not have been achieved by constitutional means, he alleged that the system on which votes were taken at the works was more often than not a travesty on democratic procedure.

“The whole trouble .seems to arise from the fact, that the men. principally involved in the latest dispute want to earn big money without doing the work,” the slaughterman stated. "On the lamb and mutton ‘ring’ the workers have imposed a voluntary restriction limiting their output to 100 head of stock an hour for each logger employed. For instance, if five loggers are working they are prepared to handle only 500 lambs an hour.” Other sections of slaughtermen were also on piecework but no similar restrictions were imposed and it was the aim of each team to draw the highest wages by producing the largest output.

Staffing of Mutton “Ring” The question of staffing the mutton “ring” had arisen last year and the employers had agreed to reduce the number of men employed on the system from about 90 to 75 if the restriction were lifted. This would enable the men to earn 38s (id a day. The proposal was originally accepted, only to be rejected shortly after in favour of a claim that the staff on the “ring” should be reduced to 35. “Men who have been sufficiently game to expose the intimidation that is common at the works have won .he admiration of scores of their colleagues,” it was explained. ’ “No fair indication of the feeling of the men on an important issue can be obtained without a secret ballot, but this was bitterly opposed by members of the executive during the present dispute.” Abuse and Ridicule Ridicule and abuse were hurled upon a man who was prepared to vole against a strike or stop-work proposal. It was doubted whether there were j'O men who were sufficiently courageous to express their own opinions when they were in opposition to a small extreme section of the union.

The case was quoted of an earlier dispute which arose in August over dressing-room accommodation at the works. On this occasion a motion to cease work was proposed, together with an amendment that the 5000 head of Stock on hand should be killed and a meeting held later to determine the progress made in the dispute. A division was called and when about 100 men walked to oneside of the room in favour of the amendment they were subjected to cat-calls, hooting and jeering. “None of the men want to lose time md wages, particularly at this period >f the year,” it was added. “Extremist views do not dominate the union at other works, and consequently they do not have the same stoppages as have occurred in Westfield.”