STILL IDLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 10

STILL IDLE

| Belfast Freezing Works I Secret Ballot Among Men Bv Telegraph —Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, December 15. The freezing works of Thomas Borthwick and Sons (Australasia), Ltd., at Belfast were again idle to-day. The men offered ‘themselves for work at 8 a.m., but would not take stations on the third chain. A meeting was held by the men when the company refused to make stock available for the chains, this meeting being attended by the officer in charge of the Labour Department <Mr R. T. Bailey). On Mr Bailey’s suggestion, all the men concerned took part in a secret ballot on the proposition that the men should consent to the request of the company and man the third chain. The result of the ballot was a de- j cision 4 by four to one, against consent. | An official of the company said today that they had taken the position as far as they could. Men were required to work the third chain. They had been asked to do so and had refused. prefering to adhere to conditions that were in force last season. So long as the men maintained their present attitude the company would abide by its decision not to supply stock for the chains. The secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers’ Union (Mr H. G. Kilpatrick) said the men were prepared to go back to work on two chains and leave the question of the manning of the third to the Disputes Committee.