FREEZING WORKERS GO SLOW

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2986, 14 January 1926, Page 3

FREEZING WORKERS GO SLOW

UNION SECRETARY’S EXPLANATION

There has been a certain amount of curiosity about the instruction of the freezing companies in the south that the slaughterers were not to be allowed to kill more than four sheep per hour instead of the usual twelve per hour (says the Dominion). It is understood that this combined action by the southern companies is intended to counteract the goslow tactics adopted by the men with a view to compelling the companies to grant increased wages. Mr. F. C. Ellis, secretary of the Conterbury freezing Workers’ Union, stated the other day (as reported by an exchange) that he had been informed that at one of the works the men wanted to resume the full killing rate that morning, but the company refused to give them the stock. He understood that the company had the stock available. When asked the reason for the action taken by the men in reducing the output at the works, Mr. Ellis stated that the men were annoyed. They considered that they were rightly entitled to the increase of a penny an horn 1 in accordance with the last pronouncement of the Arbitration Court, which, in the case of piece-workers, would work out at the rate of 4 per cent. Mr. Ellis said that neither side could approach the Court separately with an application for an amendment of the award. The parties must reach an agreement on the matter first and then make a joint application for the award to be amended. The employers had refused to agree to the increase in wages, and the union was not able to approach the Court without that agreement. In reply to further inquiries, Mr. Ellis said that he could not say how long the men were prepared to continue diminished killings. He had not heard any mention of a strike.

The wages earned during the last two seasons, as supplied by the union to the Arbitration Court, were as follows: —1923-24: Slaughtermen, £5 16s. Id. t 9 £5 5s 2d; casing labourers, £3 17s lid; pelt labourers, £3 0s 8d; slaughter-house assistants, £3 95., £3 3s 6d., £4 is. 1924-25: Slaughtermen, £6 2s 6d., £5 17s Id., £5 4s 4d; slaughterhouse assistants, £3 16s 4d, £3 17s 2d., £3 4s 2d., £3 11s od., £3 11s Id.