Excluding Dairies From Arbitration

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 139, 2 September 1927, Page 13

Excluding Dairies From Arbitration

BLAME FOR UNIONISM DEPUTATION TO MINISTRY (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. COMPLETE exclusion of the dairying industry from the provisions of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was asked by a deputation representative of 234 dairy factories which waited on the Hon. G. J. Anderson, Minister of Labour, and the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Prime Minister, to day, and which laid the blame for bad feeling, decreased production and the lower quality of produce at the door of the arbitration awards. Mr. A. Morton, president of the National Dairy Association, said that if the men were members of trade unions, and forced to strike in sympathy with other unionists, primary production would be dealt a vital blow. The claim was made by the deputation that small cheese factories suffered a loss of 4d a lb. in butterfat since the award was enforced, while the good feeling between manager and man, and between director and supplier, had been destroyed. Air. C. E. Macmillan, M.P., said that companies in his district had not been happy since the award came in. Air. Coates: What is the difference in money value? Air. Macmillan: There is not a great difference in the money value. It is more a matter of feeling and elasticity. Air. Coates: But how does it affect the industry? Air. Macmillan: The men do not want to be members of a union. Air. Anderson promised to place the representations before Cabinet, when he brought the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act forward, and Air. Coates promised consideration, but would not indicate the Government’s attitude.