PATEA WORKERS PROTEST

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1932, Page 9

PATEA WORKERS PROTEST

SOME DENIED RELIEF WORK STRUCK OFF UNEMPLOYED ROLLS. FREEZING WORKS JOBS REFUSED. CHARGE OF STRIKE-BREAKING. Alleging that a plain statement of policy made by the Prime Minister in the House recently had been set at nought and that the Unemployment Board was violating a specific pledge, Messrs. R. H. Mays and J..P. Queenan, waited upon the meeting of the Patea Unemployment ■'Committee yesterday as a deputation from the Freezing Workers’ Union. Mr. Mays said the deputation was there on behalf of eight or ten men who had b?en struck off the roll of unemployed. These men, he said, had received notification that no more unemployed relief work would be. given them, and on the same day they received a notice to the effect that their old jobs were open to them at the . freezing works.. Mr. Mays .maintained that the Government should not uSe the -Act - in this manner to cut off men from all Chance of earning a livelihood. Mr. Queenan spoke to the same effect,, saying that the Government had given a definite assurance on the point and that this pledge had been broken without any explanation. Mr.. G. R. Taylor, representing the Government on the board, briefly outlined the section of the Act under whicih the action had been taken. Section 20 of the 1930 Act stated generally: No sustenance or allowance is to be given to any unemployed man who has refuses suitable work offered to him. •» , ’ Mr. Queenan said many men . would be better off accepting tinemployed work than taking work from the 'freezing works. He claimed that the k workers were not going to acquiesce in .the efforts of <the Unemployment Board •to break strikes under cover of the Unemployment Act. The men would starve rather than , take work -at the ; freezing ■works after having been put; off relief work. PRESSURE ON THE WORKERS. Mr. A. T. Christensen touched on the question of housing for new "working men coming into Patea. The members of the deputation had said that the work- 1 , ers were prepared to leave their houses if- the Patea landlords were going to support the “combines” against the working men. , , , * The deputation expressed thanks for the hearing given them and withdrew. The meeting decided, in view of the fact that the men had been dismissed under orders from Wellington without any reasons being given, to communicate with those in authority there to find the exact ground of the dismissals. Mr. A. N. Williams told a Daily News reporter yesterday that the chain system of slaughtering was in effective use at Patea, the results to date proving satisfactory. It was anticipated that by the end of the week 2000 sheep per day would be put through. When the men had become more proficient a higher output would be expected. , Over 100 men are at present employed at the works, all being free labourers. They are housed at the works, in various buildings; there are several marquees and an up-to-date cook-house. The works are at .present almost, fully maptied. The new workers are largely married men, some of them going home during the week-ends. . They have applied for registration of a union but registra* tion has not yet been effected. • - - - - Mr, Mays, questioned- by a- reporter, denied, that the Patea Freezing Workers Union had been in Conciliation Council with the Patea Farmers’ Freezing Company- No unionists had accepted work at Patea. Solemn resolutions had been passed throughout the Wanganui, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay works -by-.the unionists pledging ' each individual unionist not to accept work m any freezing works until the dispute was settled satisfactorily by the National Council of Action. . Mr. Mays stated that the housing position was acute at Patea and liable to became worse if pressure were brought to bear on union workers to evacuate their houses for “imported workers.