DAIRY FACTORY WORKERS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1926, Page 15

DAIRY FACTORY WORKERS

APPLICATION FOR AWARD

CONCILIATION PROCEEDINGS.

EMPLOYERS NOT REPRESENTED.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.

Palmerston N., Last Night.,

One hundred and three dairy companies in the Wellington province, including six proprietary concerns, are cited in an application for the hearing of an industrial dispute before the Conciliation Commissioner, in which claims are being made for an award to cover dairy factory workers in the province, which is the only industrial district in which an award is not in force.

The hearing was fixed to take place at Palmerston North to-day, but it was known beforehand that the employers had declined to appoint assessors to defend their position before the commissioner, Mr. P. Halley, who remarked that it was the first time in his 29 years’ experience In which such an attitude had been adopted by the employers.

These tactics were roundly' condemned by the agent for the union, Mr. Walter Bromley, and characterised as a deliberate attempt to hold up the proceedings sufficiently' long to make any award valueless for the present season. The commissioner undertook to try to get the parties together, failing which lie would have to refer the matter to the Arbitration Court’s decision. Increases in pay are demanded up to £l, and a reduction in hours is also sought.