SLAUGHTERMENS ASSISTANTS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 758, 5 March 1910, Page 6

SLAUGHTERMENS ASSISTANTS

AN AUCKLAND STRIKE. ■ (By Telegraph.—Preea Association.! Auckland, March 4. ! Some time ago a deadlock occurred at the Southdown works of the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company- through the refusal of the floor hands assisting the slaughtermen', to go on with. their work unless they were paid higher wages. The disaffected hands were not high skilled workmen, but the seriousness of their refusal to work lay in the fact that it would be impossible for the slaughtermen to' go on with thoir work unleßS their assistants could be' persuaded to do the subsidiary work. Accordingly, an effort was made by the management to get the men to go on with their duties until the matter in dispute could be settled at a conference before the Conciliation Commissioner. Their effort was successful, and the men went back to worlf until yesterday, when the dispute was referred to a, conference of representatives from the men and the employers, with the Commissioner (Mr. T. Harle Giles) in the chair. This conference lasted from 7.30 p.m. until midnight, and in the end effected nothing.

The point of difference upon which the parties failed to agree was that relating to preference to unionists, and today the men went on strike. Their demands are for more wages and preference to unionists. These are concessions which .the company are not at present prepared to grant. The employers' representatives were given no inlding a£ the conference • last night that a strike was likely to eventuate this morning, but, when the whistle blew. for the hands to resume, the slaughtermen's assistants came to the works as usual and refused to "turn to" unless they were granted the concessions which they had tried unsuccessfully to get' at the conference. The strike has occurred ai a most inopportune time for the conipany and for graziers. The freezing season is now at its height, and farmers and export buyers have booked space in the freezing chambers for stock to be killed and exported. If -the strike continues, all these arrangements will be upset, and the seriousness of the position can be readily realised. So far, the men have not-mod-erated their demands, and the company are not.-prepared to recede from the position which they have taken up with regard to them.