SLAUGHTERMEN'S WAGES

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13230, 9 March 1907, Page 6

SLAUGHTERMEN'S WAGES

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S VIEWS. A QUESTION OF LAW. STRIKERS CAN BE IMPRISONED. Per Press Association. . i- WELLINGTON, March 8. The Cabinetis to meecto-morrowto consider the position, regarding the refusal of' the Canterbury slaughtermen to pay the fines imposed on them by the Arbitration. Court. - In an interview on the subject, the Hon. Dr Findlay, Attorney-General,- said, ,in regard to ; the question whether the machinery of the Act is so defective as to permit its violation with impunity--"Upon this test I cbim.'to speak wi'Ji more certainty and authority than with regard to the ' first test, because this is • entirely a question of law.: It narrows itself down to this: Can those _ who have struck and 1 have been fined, be- imprisoned for non-payment of their fines? This question ; can be . answered . without-. theslightest hesitation in the affirmative'. Tlie law is perfectly clear; andl it stands thus: Section 15 of the Act' of 1905, under which the men were fined, declares that those who strike shall; be gtiflty ,of an. offence arid shall be liable to a fine. By section 101, where a fine is imposed, it is enforced by means of a certificate given under the hand of. the clerk and the seal of the Court which, wlien- filed in a Court having - civil jurisdiction, filial'. thereupon be enforcable in all respects as a final judgment of such Court Therefore, a certificate in respect of the, fines which have been, imposed, may be' filed in " the Supreme Court. - " What peaalty may thereupon, be en- ' forced.against the defendants? . A'Sney it will be' remembered, is not- a debt within the meaning of the Imprisonment for. Debt Abolition Act for/lefau t in paj'-ment. of any penalty or of any suns -i.i the nature of a penalty; It is expressly, excepted from: that Act; The -protection then of the Imprisonment for Debt, Abolition Act is not given to the defendants here. In England, -under the same circumstances, they could on.;'non-payment be arrested under what lawyers call the ca sa. . In New Zealand under the Supreme dourt code : of 1882, the-procedure is in the . way of a motion .for' attachment,: on the filing and service of r which the defendant lias an opportunity of showing that iie lias paid- tlie fine, and if he has not done scf, he may be sent to prison for a., period not exceeding one year. The limitation of one year is contained in the last paragraph of the third section of the Imprisonment for. Debt Abolition Act. : Therefore the powers of . the law in punishing, a man convicted of taking: part in a strike, and failing to pay the fine imposed upon . him are exceedingly wide, 'and I know of no ru'e which would prevent the Supreme Court from committing- a mail whose fine is not paid to prison foT such term less thaji a year as the Court may think fit. "I -am informed that the fines already . imposed amount to over £7O, and it is quite clear that if each man who joins in the strike may be fined £lO, as is allowed by the Act,. and in default of payment may be sent'to . gaol for substantial term, the Act- furnishes- a deterrent- which most responsible and .sensible-men would not treat lightly.' ; "Can it then bg said f.\.at : in the second -test; of the enforceability of its awards, the-Act has-broken-down? Surely if my view-of the law is right this ques-. tion' may only be answered one way. I am not the Minister for Labour, Kind in, this connection, my duty mainly lies in advising' the Government. The Minister for .Labour, and. the Acting-Premier have " botli spoken,- and their determination to ' enforce the law. has already - been unequivocally declared." THE AUCKLAND UNION. ; AUCKLAND, March 8. As a result, of a meeting of the. newlyformed Auckland Slaughtermen's Union, the was yesterday forwarded to tlie. Provincial Masters-Butchers' -Association, and several big butchering establishments, Auckland, with a request that an answer be r given by 5 o'clock to-morrow evening.; De'ails are withheld, but it i-' retierallv understood that the men would demand to be placed on the same footing as

the southern employees in the matter of rate of' pay unci hours of labour. It is understood that in_.tlie gvent of men ceasing work they will make arrangements enabling the employers to maintain the meat supply for domestic use. THE DEADLOCK CONTINUES. ' ■ CHRLSTOHURCH, March 8. Both sides in the slaughtermen's dispute still stand firm. The men state that they wi'l not- work except at increased' rates; and the employers insist that the matter .shall be referred to the Court. The men will not consent to this. The manager of the Christchurch Meat Company states that they may be able to. do without- the men. New hands arer coming in steadily;-., and" over forty are now ikiilkg at the. works at. Islington and Smithfie"'d.~ The men state that they do not intend to pay the fines inflicted by the' Court, and as they have no property, they do not consider enforcement possible. POSITION IN SOUTHLAND. IN VERCARGILL, March 8. ■ The position -ps regards the strike has somewhat leversed locally; recently there were sheep and no men-, now there are men and no sheep. - At; Mataura a full board of 14 butchers is available, andl they aire, expected to start on Saturday. They would have started to r day if sheep had been available. At Wallacetown, butchers are being engaged. The position at . Ocean Beach is unchanged: Seven; of the Mataura men are ex-strikers. The slaughtermen hold a, meeting to-morrow for the purpose, it is said, of considering, another oiler by.. the companies. The companies - !i y no tiling about the new-.otter.- and stats that they abide by the original proposals. THE MEN'S POSITION. / fa Thursday four representatives of tlie slaughtermen—Messrs J: B. Pope (president of the jUnion), J. Duane (Pareora)-, -i E. Hodge (Fairfieldi) and.V. Parker (Smithfield)—being , authorised by , the Union to do so, gave a Lyttelton -Times " reporter'! an, authorita-tive statement of the men's 1 ..demands. The ..following is-- an--abstract 1 of the statement.

The men considered that nine hours a day of such- hard work was'.enough for any man, and .too much.-: when tlie pace, was made fast and ;the sheep were big.' They therefore demanded fixed hours of labour, from, 7 -to- 5, and- 7 to noon ori Saturdays, with 20 minutes smoke-oli each day. ' ' '. Tlie rates of pay were insufficient and they demanded 255" per 100 . (3d per sheep) for freezers,; 2Cs -for potters and preservers, old rams- and stags 6d each. The increase would mean only a half-penny per head to the farmer, who would not object to pay it, as it would mean giving the butcher a fair wage; < . Many farmers had told them so. , 'ldle rate for potters was 12s 6d, and for preserver.s lss, bur tlie men were often paid for potters that went -to the ,preserver. Potters- were more roughly dressed than freezers, but: they were the dangerous ones, from the frequency of internal purulent diseases, which poisoned a hand -that had cuts in it; and very often they had cuts. At Pareora. three men were off 1 for a forti night, from that cause There was not i a slaughterman who did not carry the I scars of cuts and poisoned wounds. Deali ing with these potters," preparing them; l for ■ the 1 manure digesters, was sickening I work, and that should be taken into aci count.

The third demand rel.-ited to. the amount of detail work required of Ihem. They proposed' to kill, skin, empty,, wipe, and hs.nrr off; . trotters to be left on the skin. Hitherto they had been required to skin the trot'ers and throw them away, and to leave the wool piece attached to the skin. This required a dangerous " corkscrew" cut, which the men wished to avoid. If the trotters -were left on the skin, thev could be safely skinned by any unskilled man.

All fines to be abolished. A common fine was Is for a. slm in taJcing off a; skin, and that meat killing five sheep for nothing, whilst if a man obiected to being fined he was sacked. The company h*d no riffht to make pickings out of the men for occasional slips. In rase of a " cut-out" (completion of the killing of pre owner's lot) eivlv in the day, 2s 6d per hour to be paid while waiting for the next lot, afler the first

quarter of an ,liour. • All sheep''-to-be penned off before killing. This they regarded as important, as the pens were there for the purpose and it was unfair that a man should have to drag a heavy sheep half a chain perhaps, unnecessarily. And the sheep were Jiable to/get ■ braised in the- process. They" asked : that not more than two meft should work- from, one pen, a« a'larger number , of men moving- aboutwith knives in their-.hands meant increased danger, of accident. Each slfiughteryard to be provided with a- dressingroom. At some of the North Island works a., dressing room »-,nd wash bowls were-provided, but there was no such thing in Canterbury. The men had nowhere to sit, nowhere to hang their clothes except the sheep pens,, where they might get knocked' down and trampled upon". No provision was made for the men having a decent wash before going home, .. -

Other clauses of the proposals related to holidays and oilier union m-sttcrs. In the course of some general remarks on their ; demands, -the men's representatives said the conditions of their labour were too much like those described in Upton., Sinclair's book, "The Jungle." They had to work wet to the skin willi water and perspiration; and : the companies showed no consideration, for them. This, want- of consideration,, was -shown in the absence of the conveniences above mentioned ; in asking them to work-, long hours at exhausting work; in *jthe, delays in payment of insurance for accident—"the men had to battle for it"—in. the resistance sometimes offered to claims for such compensation, and in the ignoring of a communication from the Pareora men, as if they were not worth any consideration; They objected to Sunday work, even though they , were, paid double rates ; a,nd they remarked that'if the companies; could afford to pay £2 for Sunday killing they could, afford . 25s on, week ;davs. Slaughtering, they said', was filthy arid dangerous work (every man of the four showed scars of severe cuts), and most of the slaughtermen were. on the look out for something better. In ,-thtt meantime t-hev wanted nothing unreasonable, and they- hoped that the public would recognise this and extend to them some sympathy They had not rushed this matter ; they believed .they...had- rights and were determined .to maintain, them. In conclusion, the representatives stated that the majority of the slaughtermen in Canterbury- were New Zealan^i's— at, Pareora 18 out of. 25...a-t. Smithfield ;„s7- ; out of * 45, at Islington over 40 out ot Or, at Belfast the great majority of'foU, and at Fairfield 30 out of 45.