SLAUGHTERMEN ON STRIKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3751, 14 February 1907, Page 3

SLAUGHTERMEN ON STRIKE.

Two Wellington Meat Works Effected. Demand For Higher Wages. Wellington, Tuesday. Some sixty men at the Wellington Meat Export Company’s works at Nghauranga and upwards of fifty men at the Gear Meat Company’s works at Petone have gone out on strike for higher wages. The men were engaged in sheepslaughtering, and were working under an industrial agreement made on ist August, 1904. The agreement provides that the schedule rates for killing are : —All sheep or lambs not otherwise specified, £1 per hundred; all rams, 5d each ; all lambs requiring backs sets, 5d each ; all sheep and lambs that are dead when brought to works, 3d each ; all, cattle, 2s each ; all pigs, is each ; all calves, is each.

If the strike continues, some five hundred men will be effected.

The employers state that in January last the men made a demane for 25s per hundred all round, and objected to overtime work afters p.m. and after noon on' Saturdays. The employers offered 2is per hundred all round, overtime work to be done only in cases where it Was absolutely necessary.

The men claim that the industry is in a prosperous condition, and that they should participate in that prosperity, especially as the cost of living has greatly increased during recent years. Some of the Gear Company’s men, in addition to increased wages, want a share in the profits. It appears that the men have been thinking over a strike for some time past, and that they fore ‘ ‘going out. ’ ’ The same thing waited until the yards were full bewas done in Australia, where the rates were fixed by a Wages Board. Mr Cooper says that one of the men’s claims is for payment lor waiting time, which at times amounts to half an hour or threequarters of an hour. The men get employment only for about seven months each year. Mr Cooper adds that a few years ago the men were earning £6 to £7 a week, but now. the average rate for the twelve months is considerably less than an ordinary labourer would earn.

On the other hand, one employer asserts that working from 7 a.m. with time off for three weeks, men could now earn £6 to £7 per week for six months yearly, and could then go to Australia and find the season there waiting.