FREEZING WORKERS’ DISPUTE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1921, Page 4

FREEZING WORKERS’ DISPUTE

CONFERENCE ABANDONED. UNION OFFICIALS BLAMED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Nighv. The following statement was issued to-day by the chairman of the Freezing Companies’ Labor Committee in accordance with the suggestion made by the President of the Arbitration Court at the conclusion of the Wellington hearing: The representatives of employers and employees in the freezing industry met in Christchurch on Saturday and to-day, with the object of arriving at an agreement on as many points as possible in the freezing workers’ dispute, prior to the Arbitration Court hearing in Christchurch this week. During the course of the negotiations a telegram was received by the employers, from a HaWke’s Bay works stating that acting under instructions from the federation, the workers had refused to commence work until the new award was made, notwithstanding the £act that, in accordance with the court’s suggestion, the rates of pay and conditions at present in existence were to continue until amended by the court;, The secretary of the" federation refused to admit or deny that instructions were issued as stated, and also refused, on behalf of the federation, to send a •telegram advising the men to commence work. It was impossible for the employers to continue negotiations with officials of the union who refused to take any steps to advise the men to work, and the conference was accordingly abandoned. Hastings, Noy. 14. A meeting of Hawke’s Bay freezing workers on Saturday night decided not to , start work until the decision of the Arbitration Court had been placed before them at a future meeting.