CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18220, 3 November 1924, Page 5

CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

THRESHING MILL EMPLOYEES. The threshing- mill -workers and owners' industrial dispute catnc up for consideration before the Conciliation Council on Saturday morn-iti?. Mr W. H. Hag?cr, Conciliation Commissioner, presided. The workers' assessors were Messrs TV. Baker, A. Meighan, and A. Cook, and the threshing mill owners' Messrs G. Sheat, J. Matthews, H. E. Peryman, and Truman Jones. A total of about 120 mill owners were cited. The employees asked that hours of work shou.d be between 0 ;i.m. and 7 p.m.. except on Saturdays, when they should be between <"> a.m. and fi p.m. The present award leaves the hours of work to the. discretion of each employer, the employee not to work by moonlight or lamplight except in cases of emergency. The employees also csked that all employees receive 2s an hour and found, and while stook-threshing 2s 5d and found, cooks £'s 10s a week, drivers and feeders Ss and 2s 9d respectively for all time worked. The present award provided lor Is 6d an hour and a bonus of TJd, with piece, work when a crop ran 100 bushels an hour Clover at ]Js per 1000 bushels of wheat and barley, and li'.s per 1000 bushels of oats, with a bonus of os lOd a thousand bushels. The employers refused to accept anything except the stipulations of the present award. Owners' Position. Mr Sheat, in refusing to agree to the men's demands, stated that the farmers, whom he classed as a third party in the dispute, would not agree to any increase in threshing charges. The wages demands of the men he classed as impossible. The mill owners would agree to the present ruling" rates, but they would not pay any increase, and could not stand any more fast and loose dealings. Farmers were going through the bankruptcy court at a rate of from 100 to 100 a year. If the mill owners put on any more burdens there would be trouble. The mill owners had a duty to the men, who were struggling to keep their heads above water. The Farmers' Union were discontented with the mill owners, who they said were charging too much. They accused the owners of being in the hands of the Labour Party. They said thnt the owners had sold the farmers to the Labour Party. They had been so discontented that they hud put him. out of the Fanners' Union. Mr Cock: "Who said you had sold the farmers to the Labour Party? Mr Sheat: That would 'lie felling what I have been told. He stated that the owners were acting in the interests of themselves, the farmers and the public. If the dispute went to the Arbitration Court the Farmers' Union wouid appear as a third party. A solicitor had asked him to collaborate in working up a case against the employees, and he would do so if no agreement was reached. Mr Cook: You can't frighten us. ' Mr Sheat: 1 don't want to frighten anyone. I have been told that the farmers have evidence that any increase in threshing charges at present will mean the downfall of Ihe grain-growing industry. The mill owners, are prepared to give the wages ruling in the present award, but no more. They were not prepared to surrender their position. Mr Cook: You are not prepared to conciliate? Mr Sheat: We are if the employees are prepared to accept the conditions now rulingin the, present award. Mr Cook: You should not have come here at all then. Mr Sheat explained that the mill owners had gone to the Conciliation Council because they were cited. Dunedin Award. The Conciliation Commissioner pointed out that in Dunedin the threshing mill employees in their dispute went directly to the farmers, and the Otago and Southland farmers had granted an increase of wages. The mill owners had not been cited at all, and a complete agreement had been reached, including the increase in wages. He wished to point this out, he said, so that the mill owners of Canterbury could rest assured that the farmers could not complain of an increase commensurate with that given by the farmers themselves in Dunedin. Mr Sheat: That docs not apply. They only grow 10 per cent, of wheat down there, whereas in the district which this award is to affect 80 per cent, of the total wheat in Xew Zealand is grown. The Canterbury district was, in fact, the granary of New Zealand. The mill owners had the right given them lu- the Arbitration Court to thresh under the contract system, but the employees, on the other hand, said that the contract svstem. must go. If they would give the employers the contract system the owners would give them Is 9d an hour, on an hourly basis. In the award in Otago and Southland the men were getting Is 9d an hour. At present he was paying 2s lid an hour under the contract system. In the south tiie men were supplied with food, but in Canterhurv the men supplied their own. Mr Cook: "About 4Jd would not supply any man with food. The sum mentioned was the difference between the Otego and Canterhurv rates. Mr Sheat said fhat the mill owners could give no more. They considered that the waees paid were commensurate with the cost of living a-nd the price the mill owners got out of it. Continuing, he said that there was the probability that the. price of wheat next season would be a good one, but it all depended on the price for which the commodity could b e imported from Australia. Mr'Meisrhan: They can't import it from Australia for less than 7s or 8s a bushel. With the exception of several minor claims, the whole dispute was referred to the Arbitration Court.