FREEZING OPERATIONS.

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXII, Issue 222, 10 December 1926, Page 3

FREEZING OPERATIONS.

STOP-WORK MEETINGS. As a result of decisions made at freezing workers’ meetings yesterday, butchers at Tomoana and. Whakatu will restrict their output as from this morning to eight head per head per man, instead of killing the noririal number of from .12 to 15. Whatever trouble ultimately arises, the companies and the free labour oragnisations will continue to stand firm, and are not likely to give way before the present demands. The report of Wednesday’s freezing workers’ meeting in yesterday’s issue of the “Herald” contained statements that further trouble was afoot at the works and that a certain section of the men wore making an effort to provoke a new conflict between the union and the employers. Those statements were confirmed yesterday by the holding of several slopwork metings at Tomoana and at Whakatu, the reason for them being the .failure of the authorities at Whakatu to give employment to a well-known union official. The employers concerned have their own reasons for their action, and those reasons arc apparently unacceptable not only to the men referred to, but also to an allegedly small section of the workers, chiefly butchers and employees in the fellmongery departments, j At Tomoana, yesterday, the men did ! not begin work till about nine o’clock, and soon afterwards downed their tools and had a conference. The returned to work upon the “go slow” system and then, soon afterwards, had another conference. At last the company officials took up a stand and discharged the union men, hut one by one they sauntered back and insinuated themselves into their tasks until they were all at work again. A similar state of affairs prevailed at Whakatu. where several stop-work meetings were held during the day. What with those metings -and with the “go slow” policy, it was a busy day. In the meantime, the opposition to the free labourers seems to to have abated and they are, according to all evidence, being allowed to carry on (as they did during the stopwork mccetings, and very excellently too) entirely unmolested. Even two or three union men at Whakatu kept at their work at the same time and did not bother to attend the meetings. The position to-day is as stated above, and it is bound, for to-day at least, to cause a certain amount of inconvenience to farmers, one of whom is know nto have 3000 head of sheep on route to one of the works.—H.B. Herald.