FREEZING WORKS KILLINGS

Southland Times, Issue 25673, 16 May 1945, Page 4

FREEZING WORKS KILLINGS

FARMERS’ COMPLAINT ABOUT DELAYS A statement that numerous complaints were being received from farmers about delays in killings was made yesterday by the general manager of the Southland Frozen Meat Company (Mr A. Derbie). Mr Derbie said that under the existing manpower regulations it seemed almost impossible to make a small section of the workers realize that every hour and day, lost meant a definite loss to the producer. “Making due allowance for the two days victory celebrations last week, the number of men available for the remainder of that week was the lowest on record,” Mr Derbie said. “At Mataura and Makarewa we have a total of 125 hooks for solo slaughtermen, but on Friday and Saturday only 86 and 74 men put in an appearance at the respective works. On Monday 107 men were on duty.” On Tuesday of last week a stopwork meeting lasting one hour and aquarter had been held at Makarewa when certain domestic matters had been discussed, Mr Derbie said. This had made it necessary for a quantity of stock to be returned to the farms. After two days’ paid holidays it had been necessary to report 42 workers for absenteeism on Friday last. This had been necessary to comply with the Manpower Regulations.