GO-SLOW AT ABATTOIR

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19830, 22 December 1919, Page 7

GO-SLOW AT ABATTOIR

CHRISTMAS MEAT TRADE SUFFERS.

MILK LAMBS TURNED OUT.

There is every prospect that the public may have to go short m their Christmas joints as the result of a hitch with tho slaughtenmui at the city abattoir, where all city meat supplies have to be killed. The trouble amounts to a go-slow strike owing to the refusal of tho slaughtermen to work overtime or engage in killing if casual labour is employed. Although work is proceeding there is so much stock to b© killed that a meat shortage is certain unless overtime is worked, and casual labour employed. The root of the trouble is the demand of the slaughtermen for more money. Their award has expired, and negotiations are in progress for a new agreement. The dispute is said to turn on tho price of killing sheep. The Abattoir Committee has offered 355, and tho men demand 38s. The committee has offered £4 5s a week ond tho men demand £-4 10s- The committee will report to the City Council tonight on the matter. Meanwhile, it is alleged, tho men are putting the screw on through the butchers and the public-

The butchers are suffering more or loss severely, and their complaints are loud. There was a Into market at Addington on Thursday, and consequently there was heavy buying, especially of lambs, for tho Christmas trade. One big firm of blitchors sent a coupl© of its own men out to the abattoir, and they wore killing all day on Friday, but on Saturday the permanent hands threatened to stop work if this casual labour was continued, and they persuaded tho men not to continue. The consequence is that large numbers of milk _ lambs, which go back rapidly in condition after leaving their mothers, have been turned out into the paddocks, and a heavy loss is entailed on tho butchers. One butcher asserts that ho got no meat from tho abattoir last week. Another prominent butcher Was sold out of mutton at 11 a.m. on Saturday. He stated to-day that there were 2000 lambs to bo killed between now and to-morrow, jmd the position was impossible. He expressed the opinion that after tho present trouble was over a fight might bo looked for, and it Would bo better for the butchers to close their shops for a week and have the matter settled once and for all. Mr Cuthbort Harper, chairman of the City Council’s Abattoir Committee, speaking to a "Star ” reporter to-day, said that there had been a very big market at Addington on Thursday, and the men had to lull the lambs as they ci(.me in. The heavy buying meant that many butchers got less Idlmd than they had ordered. The men at.the abattoir had not gone slow, and were now catching up on their work, but they were preventing any casuals from being employed during the rush time on the pleii that they would bij “scabbing. ’ Tho committee had teen conferring with the slaughtermen for some time on tho question of. wages- So far they had been on a weekly wage, but they Were now asking for piecework rates, and th© committee had no objection. Tho men’s demands wore as follows:

Sheep and lambs, 38s per 100. Cattle, 2a -.ld a head. Calves up to 2001b, Is 6d. Calves over 2001b, beef ..rates. Pigs Up to 1201b, Is 3d. Pigs, 1211b to 2001b. Is 9d. Pigs over 2001b, Is per 1001b. Iho committee’s offer to them was;— Sheep and lambs, 3os per 100. , Cattle, 2a a bead. ■ Calves, Is 3d per head all round. Pigs up to 1201b, Is. Figa 1201b to 2001b, Is 6d. Pigs over 2001b, Is 9d.

Alternative!v a weekly ■ wage of £4 5s was offered, bat the men asked for £4 10s.

Mr Harper pointed out that the new freezing works award, which was iiiade m April, and came into force in August, fixed the rules paid to freezing work slaughtermen at 35s for sheep and 32s 6d for lambs, and it was admitted _ that freezing works work was intermittent, as the season extended over only six months, during four months of which the men wore going “at top.’’ for this reason the rates were higher than in other industries where the_ work was more permanent. The committee’s offer of 35s all round made an allowance for the long shank fheep required by butchers. The men had declined the offer, and the comJmttee had recommended them to go to tlio Arbitration Court, as any increase would have to he passed on to the butchers. Meanwhile there was no report from the abattoir, and although tlio men were not going slow there was no doubt that if they would not allow extra casual hands to work, butchers 7 ' orders would have to be cut down.