CHRISTCHURCH STRIKE

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 118, 13 May 1932, Page 3

CHRISTCHURCH STRIKE

3, Many Absentees PICKETS VISIT RELIEF JOBS POSITION NOT YET CERTAIN (Per Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night

A number of relief workers in the city and its environs responded to a call made to strike made at 10 a.m. to-day, but on the figures available the decision was incomplete. Because many of the men had already finished their week’s allocation before tho declaration of the strike, it appears that tho number responding to the strike call constituted a small minority of tho workers.

The strike committee claim that by the week-end practically .100 per cent of the men will have downed tools, bn* the truth of this assumption will not, be determinable until Afonday, when tho men are to recommence work.

The strikers spent tho ciay holding meetings, and some parties of pickets visited working gangs. Of the 12,222 men who should have been at work today only 202 were absent, and most of the absentees were from parties in the Heathcote county, where, of ISO engaged, 150 men struck.

City Council workers’ wages arc subsidised by the council and made up to 14s 6d per day; nevertheless 51 men struck out of 430. In some cases the men loft their job at the request of pickets, but later returned to work. Some groups have declared that they do not sympathise with tho strike and will not join.

However, the figures may not give a true indication, as the strike committee had said that the men might, if they chose, complete their week’s allocation before joining the strike. Some have declared already that they will return to work on Monday.