SUPPORT FOR STRIKERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 258, 1 November 1932, Page 9

SUPPORT FOR STRIKERS

UNEMPLOYED AT HAWERA FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE WILL NOT ACCEPT EREE LABOUR Support for the freezing workers was forthcoming at a. meeting of 50 Ilawera unemployed last Saturday night, after hearing addresses by representatives of the employees of the Patea and Waitara freezing works. The u/employed pledged to decline the call for free labour at the works. It was rumoured that the Patea works would be calling for free labour yesterday morning, but this was not done. The works are at present carrying on with their permament staff, although it is likely that more labour will be required later this wook, when a call for free labour will be made. At the meeting at Hawera on Saturday night, Mr R. H. Mays, secretary of the Patea Freezing Workers’ Union, in addressing those present, stated that it was the reduction of wages which the union was fighting, and it seemed that the freezing companies were going to fight them as hard as they could. Mr Mays went on to describe what the reduction in the wages would mean. It had been stated, he said, that butchers in the bobby calf industry made big wages, but he would deny that. At the peak of the season, the biggest wages earned by one man in one week was only £7, while for 13 weeks 15 slaughtermen had earned only £37 between them. Mr Mays said that they had had an instance of what happened to free labourers in Patea recently. Employers throughout New Zealand rarely protected the free labourers.

Mr E. Evans, president of tho Waitara Freezing Workers’ Union, explained the conditions there. About 30 free labourers were being employed at tho present time. They had been guaranteed a permanent job by the employers, but they all knew what would happen when the dispute was settled. “This is not an ordinary industrial fight; it will bo far larger than New Zealand has ever seen,” said Mr Ewens. It had been said that the small farmer was the backbone of the country, but he asked what was the good of the backbone without the supporting organs. At present three firms were buying at their own figures, and as long as they could purchase the products of the country at their own figures, where was the small farmer? Until the farmers said to the firms, “You can dominate the Argentina, but you can’t dominate New Zealand,” it would get worse.

Mr C. Topp, another member of the Waitara unionists, urged the Hawera unemployed to do their best to prevent any more free labourers going to the Waitara works.

The following resolution was carried unanimously: “That this mass meeting of Hawera unemployed pledges its support to the freezing workers throughout New Zealand and will decline to accept free labour; the men also disassociate themselves from the men who have gone to the works.”