RELIEF WORK

Hokitika Guardian, 17 December 1929, Page 5

RELIEF WORK

WORKERS’ UNION SECRETARY’S COMPLAINT. (By Telegraph—Press Association). WELLINGTON, Dec. 17. “On several 'occasions previously I have drawn attention to the wretched conditions under which men on Public Works are suffering, but little br no notice has been taken by the head of the Public Works Department, and the conditions are speedily becoming worse instead of improving,” said Mr A. Cook, General Secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union in a statement yesterday. “Lack of organisation is responsible and the blame cannot he placed with , the Public Works, district officers andthe Works engineers, as these gentle-! men receive their instructions from Wellington and have to carry them out.

Hundreds of relief . workers ( are dumped into their respective ‘districts,and there is ho’accbnimbdntioii arid’notools ’for, them;*!.: - Mr Cook proceeds to give specific instances of “mismanagement, muddle and semi-starvation which men are compelled to suffer,” at Teanau, Ohakune. and Whangarei, and concludes as follows“lndications point to hundreds of men not returning to the relief works after Xmas, and none can blame them. I strongly advise all men to refuse work on Government Relief Work until such time when they shall be guaranteed a fair wage and decent conditions.