FREEZING WORKERS’ CHALLENGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 12

FREEZING WORKERS’ CHALLENGE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The freezing works dispute has gone on long enough. The people of New Zealand should see that it is not allowed to drag on its deplorable way. In this morning’s issue (Wednesday) of your paper you quote a challenge issued by Mr. H. C. Revell, of the Canterbury Workers’ Union, to -place a team of union slaughtermen against a corresponding number of free labourers working on the chain system. It is not mentioned whether the challenge has been accepted by the employers, -but I take it as a' foregone conclusion that it will not be; the result, I suggest, would be a humiliating exposure of the* inefficiency of the chain system. It is an appalling state of , affairs at present. For instance, at the Patea works the total killings are now approaching the daily levels of the old solo system but—and this is the crux of the matter—there are approximately twice as many men employed. These men must be paid, certainly at an inadequate figure in my opinion, for a continuous industry, but they are being paid and the total wage bill must be enormously above that of the old solo days. ■ Who is paying for this? The answer is the companies. But the companies will take care not to lose in the long run. The farmer will pay; the country will pay. The farmers themselves may not believe that the union strike is in their interests, but surely Government brains can see it. And if the Government can see it and yet make no end of the dispute there must be a longer-legged nigger in this' freezing works woodpile than one likes to contemplate.—l am, etc., G. E. OGDEN. Hawera, January 18.