NO AGREEMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 7

NO AGREEMENT.

Seamen Deny Report from Wellington. PLEBISCITE TO BE HELD. The report from Wellington that an agreement has been reached between members of the Seamen’s Union and the Shipowners’ Federation was denied to-day by officials of the Lyttelton branch of the union. No agreement has been reached. Yesterday, a stop-work meeting was held at Lyttelton, when seamen from the vessels in port met and discussed the owners’ proposed Jprms. It was decided that the matter should go to a plebiscite, which will be taken at all ports in the Dominion and which it is unlikely will be completed within three months. (The Wellington message referred ,to appears on Page 12). FREEZING INDUSTRY. Non-acceptance of the New Terms. ‘Freezing workers in the Canterbury Province have been instructed, it is understood, not to accept the employers’ new terms and conditions, which will be enforced at midnight on Saturday. The only works which will be immediately affected in all probability will be those at Islington, where a small amount of killing of meat for shops and of bobby calves is proceeding. It is not expected that the remainder of the works will be ready to commence killing for export before December 1, although, if the present fine weather continues, it is likely to advance the season considerably. The municipal abattoir at Sockburn * will not be concerned in any dispute that is likely to arise, as the employees there work under an agreement which is not due to expire for some little time yet. — j A Wellington Report. (Special to the ‘‘Star.’') WELLINGTON, November 2. It is reported that members of the New Zealand Seamen’s Federation have agreed to the application as from yesterday of the 10 per cent reduction in wages, made under the order of the Arbitration Court in June last. As the Federation’s agreement, which expired in August last, was not made under the I.C. and A. Act, it was not subject to the general order, but in the proposals made by the owners for a new agreement, a cut of 20 per cent was suggested. The new terms have been a subject of negotiation the parties during the past month, and the first development -is an unofficial announcement that, pending the negotiation of a settlement, the unions have agreed to continue working under wages reduced by 10 per cent and that a ballot is to be taken to decide whether the additional 10 per cent reduction proposed by the owners should form part of the new agreement.