THE ENGINEERING TRADE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14978, 27 May 1914, Page 10

THE ENGINEERING TRADE.

WELLINGTON UNION'S DEMANDS.

AN ABORTIVE CONFERENCE.

(PB*-S3 ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) " WELLINGTON, May 28

To-night a conference was ; to have been held between a committee set up by th© Amalgamated Society, of Engineers and the employers concerned, to .consider tho demands recently made by the men. Th© chief features of the demands are:—(l) A forty-four hour week, (2) preference to unionists, (3) a' five-year ■ apprentice system, with wages varying from -10s to , 14s per week, (4) increases,in wages, with provision for an additional 25 percent. to regular rates for leading hands.

At 8 o'clock Messrs 'W. Crabtree, G. McGregor (J. J. Niven and Co.), J. Dougall (Wellington Gas Company), >W. Cable and Robertson duly arrived at tho Carlton Mall, Vivian street, the place appointed for the conference. A committee from the union, seven or eight strong, was.already, in attendance, but the conference came to an abrupt end in less than ten minutes.. The men state that they submitted their schedule to tb© employers, who refused tp even consider it. No agreement, consequently, was arrived at. It seems probable that the dispute will go before the Arbitration Court. Mr W. Cable, one of the employers concerned, was asked by a "Times" reporter whether the men's version of the affair —that the employers would not listen to their demands —was cor"Certainly it is." said Mr Cable. "The conference was entirely abortive. The first thing we wanted to know was who were the men on the union's committee, and where did they work. The committee we were meeting" refused point-blank to say who they were. We made that knowledge a condition of our considering the question at all, and when it was refused we had nothing to do with the whole affair."