BRICK WORKERS

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 784, 9 June 1933, Page 3

BRICK WORKERS

No Agreement Reached in Dispute. Xo agreement* was reached when the industrial dispute between the Glenmore Brick and Tile Co.. Ltd., and the Canterbury, Brick. Pottery, Pipe. Tile J arid Clay Workers’ Industrial Union was continued in the Conciliation Council this morning. The dispute was adjourned on May IS last because the parties had failed to agree o\’er the hours of work and wages, and it was these questions which caused the breakdown in the negotiations for a new award. The Conciliation Commissioner (Mr S. Ritchie) presided. At the previous sitting- the employees asked for an adjournment to consider the final offers of the employers, which were:—Hours worked for week. 4S. Wages—Flangers, moulders, and stickers, Is 8d an hour; drawers and setters, Is 7d: all other workers. Is 6id. This morning Mr D. I. Macdonald (employers) pointed out that the emplovers could not go beyond Is 6id an hour for all other workers. This rate, he contended, exceeded by id the rate offered in any other centre. If the union could not agree to it the proceedings need not go any further, as the employers would not make an increase. .Mr If. Worrall. secretary of the union, said that there was such a vast difference between the employers’ offers and the offers the union was prepared to sign that he could not see any possibility of an agreement being reached. Mr Macdonald suggested that the employees, who wanted Is 7d, should meet the employers half-way, and accept Is 6 id. The parties separated, and on resuming the Council Mr Worrall said that the employees wanted Is 7d an hour. They would not agree to less. He moved that the dispute be referred to the Arbitration Court. The motion was lost, and the present award will lapse within thirty days unless the Council is reopened.