WORKERS STRIKE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 17, 16 April 1947, Page 5

WORKERS STRIKE

WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS HIGHER WAGE DEMAND At a slopwork meeting yesterday afternoon members of the Whakatane branch of the Paper Mills Employees Union decided to immediately cease operations until their request for an all-round increase of 3d per hour over and above existing wage rates is acceded to.

The present award was agreed to in Conciliation Council in August of last year and would ordinarily expire on 31st December next. At the time of making its. demands the Union officials stated that no compromise would be acceptable and should the demand not be met, it was the intention of Union members as from the time of the ‘start up’ following the Easter vacation to work only three 40-hour shifts within a five-day week. As the company’s normal weekly operations since it started up in 1939 has extended over 154 hours per week the reduction to 120 hours weekly would decrease output by approximately 25 per cent., estimated at over 3000 tons of cardboard annually. No approval of the increase demanded has yet been received from the Wage Commissioner consulted and a further complication arose yesterday when members of the company’s plant maintenance staff gave notice that they would work only between Mondays and Fridays until the dispute was settled. As regular weekly plant maintenance involves at least eight hours work, normally carried out at weekends this demand meant that the production staff could secure only four days weekly and culminated in the decision to suspend operations forthwith.

Approximately 175 employees are affected by the decision with wages lost amounting to £ISOO a w r eek. Costly Development One of the points made by Cr A. J. Canning last Monday evening when discussing the cutting up proposition of the Government to accommodate the new State House block at Kopeopeo, was that in levelling and clearing the sections many of them would take some £2OO to develop. This was a further indication of the unfairness of the Land Sales Court in keeping down the price of sections when offered by for salp by individual , land owners who desired to subdivide and sell sections to relieve the housing shortage. At the prices insisted upon the Land Sales Court it was impossible to sell sections at a profit in Whakatane. When however the Government took over money was no obstacle in preparing the land for building sites and the Land Sales Court did not come into it. The position was most unfair.