VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1935, Page 7

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS ' v’. / •VWORKERS IN DAIRY FACTORIES. . ' f. .. '■ t . THEIR WAGES AND CONDITIONS. < (To the Editor.) • Sir,—Would you kindly permit me to use a little space in your valuable paper to bring to the notice of the people 'of Taranaki the condition and wages' of dairy factory workers. Every day we read that more and more industries are raising wages to within 5 per cent, of the 1929 level. Now, as you are no doubt aware, instead of dairy factory employers stopping at the original 10 per cent, cut, another 10 cent, was cut off the dairy workers’ wages. When all others are increasing wages they steadfastly refuse to talk on the subject. Last year they agreed to lots of things, and an award was placed on the walls of the factories agreeing among other things that where white overalls are used, the company shall supply, them free of charge. Did they do it? It is as much as many a job is worth to ask for white overalls. When it is all boiled down, the award is not worth the piper it is printed on. It simply means that under threat of dismissal the employers can do as they like. To bring the factory wage up to . the level of other industries 15 per cent, increase will have to be made. If the dairy ’industry cannot afford it,rivho else can? . Last year it was decided towork a six-day week, but,-I venture to state, the workers are practically' paying forw that day a week off, as now they forfeit the usual three weeks’ holiday pay at the end of the season. Now for conditions. In this I am referring to cheese factories. How would the average man like to start work at between 6 and 6.30 o’clock, working until about 6 p.m.—nearly 12 hours in steamy heat, with. 39 minutes to scoff down a bit of lunch and rush back and sweat on over a steaming 900 gallon vat? What a back-breaking job, all for a mere pittance of a little over £3 a week, and the prospect of months of unemployment in the winter! Small wonder that seven out of ten of the older men spend • sleepless nights and agonising days with that dread disease, ulcerated stomach, while a large number of the young men worry constantly for fear of their ever-present kidney troubles appearing again in full force. Believe me, I hear every week of more and. more factory workers with the same complaint Ask any doctor, and he will verify my statement. But where is this oppression going to end? JDo the employers intend to pay their just debts, and. better the conditions and wages of their men? I venture to state that no other industry could do the same and get away with it—l am, etc., * ' . > A PLEA Eltham, June 4. STATE DAIRY INTERFERENCE. (To the Editor.) Sir,— Looking back makes one shudder at the blunders made. The Government started by sending three men abroad to get information, etc.. Their trip cost thousands, and t the gain; to the industry was nil. Next, on the list was that never-to-be-forgotten “control,” the mustard seed of our downfall.- .Through this brain-wave we. lost the English goodwill. Now we have boards and fat billets ad lib. At every public dairy meeting there are “pushers” looking for soft jobs. Even our factory directors are having a go at interference with the buyers overseas. This season .they have experimented on a large scale holding cheese for higher prices. Fancy trying to dictate to those who from father to son have been in the trade for hundreds of years. This meddling is only a reflex of our New Zealand State teaching. No wonder the men in the dairy produce line in England are looking elsewhere for business. Rumour says they have. recently built a large number of factories in. the Slav States. I can recall the time when numerous representatives of Tooley Street merchants attended directors’ meetings with competitive offers for the coming season’s output. They are like the moa today. The whole dairy administration has become too political, and the sooner the dairymen realise it the better. —I am, 'etc., SPERO MELIORA. Hawera, June 4.