WOOL WARPERS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1697, 13 March 1913, Page 6

WOOL WARPERS.

TROUBLE AT PETONE MILLS. IMPORTED LABOUR. OBJECTION TO WOMEN WORKERS. . .A- disagreement, which may or may not develop into something more serious has occurred'between the Wellington Woollen Company'and'their employers in the mills at' I'etone. I'lie' admitted ' facts in the dispute are as't'ullows: 'I'lie company'engaged'fire mill hands at Hudilerslield, iluglaud, to come out to New Zealand to wont at the l'etone null, ami the company paid their passage money, about J-'lUO;. Two, a 'man' and his wife, were weavers, and three young women were warpers. ■ The Award, and the Women. It is in respect of the employment of the three warpers that the dispute has arisen. The wages offered tlieni were 355. per .week, or 10s. per week .more than the minimum wage payable' to 'women workers. .The award wage for men employed a/i warpers- is £2 16s. per week, but Mr. Justice him, President of tho Arbitration Court, has held that : womeh may be.employed as warpers;«t 'any wage not less than the minimum of 255.. It is. a fact also there hare been women, as well as men, working as warpers at Petone mills for many years, but it is not tl>e custom in the South Island mills to give women this.work. — •

When the girls arrived in Wellington they were approached by the union officers, and they joined the organisation. They were informed that they.were.going to - replace three men ' who were being paid. .£2 16s. per week, and the union offered them ss. per week if. they would not go to work, .striking a levy, ot Is. per member to raise the money. To this proposal the young women agreed, but later they had an interview,. - or interviews,' with the mill manager, Mr. J. Bamsden, who engaged them in. Yorkshire, and two of them went to ..work at the mill yesterday. The third has. promised to be at her post to-day. They have all been made very unhappy over the business, but the two par,ties to the dispute do'not agree'as to who is to blame for this. The , compfiny's 'representatives. say that the. girls have heen badgered by the union, and the union says .that the company has bullied the girls, telling them that they were legally hound to work in the mill at, the wages agreed upon. Statement by the Chairman.:

Mr.' W. H. I'. .Barber, chairman of directors of the company, explained the company's position yesterday. It" was true, he-said, that men were employed as warpers at Petone, but women were also employed, and men were employed only because women could not be obtained. It was admitted that in the South. Islandmills all the warpers were men, but the southern mills were run on the lines of the mills in Scotland, where women were not employed at this work, and' trio Petone mill on the lines of the Yorkshire mills, 'where practically all the warpers were women. Mr. Justice Sim had . said that warping was work lit for women to do, and'that women could be employed at it for any wage not less than "2os. These girls were olfered 355. per week, which w;as a great deal more than they could earn in England. He said further that the wosk demanded skill more than exertion? and that women did it quite as well as men. He denied the accuracy of a statement obtained from the union, and printed in a local pa'psr that the three girls imported from England had replaced three men who had been working at the trade fo»vears. The facts are that only WARPERS -? -? -? -? THREE ouo man was replaced, and that this man had only fcoeii."'engaged in warning for. four months when the award cumo in. Ho had not learned the trade, and was only kont on until fully-trained-warpers' could be obtained. He strongly reprobated tho tactics the union had employed in die matter. The Union's View, ■Mr. A. Anderson, president of the union, stated the union's view to a Dominion reporter last night. Ho declared that some of the work required of warpers was too heavy for women. "We havo no faul'u to find," he said, "with the employment of women a 4 warpers, "if the company pay them the same wages as men. Wo wer? content to allow these women to go to work for,. £'1 ss.—of course we' couldn't stop them in any case, but wo, would have been satisfied with that—bu't the company would not pay this. We also struck a levy ,10 pay them £2 ss. (i week for twelve months if they would'not go .to work at the mill for less than this rate. Our idea in this was that the employment of the girls at 355. would create a precedent which might be used to reduce tho rate of pay throug&bu't'the colony, and to throw many men out of employment. There is no real fhortage of labour in this department, and the proof of this is that men are being dismissed in order to make way for the women at a lower wage. : One man has already received notice, and I believe the others won;.'] have had theirs if the union had not become active."

. Mr. E. Kennedy, secretary of the union, said ithat the women working as .warpers in the Old Country were paid the samo wages as men, mostly on piece rates. Against the employment of women on the same terms as men here, the union had nothing to say, but this was not a inovo to got more workers, but cheaper workers. He added that tliero was very serious disaffection among the mill employees, and although a strike was not yel; "in sight, trouble might occur at any time,"