THE FREEZING DISPUTE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12616, 29 November 1926, Page 7

THE FREEZING DISPUTE

flow THE HAWKE’S BAY MEN HAVE BEEN LET DOWN “A HOPELESS MESS” HOW OUTSIDERS BLUNDERED, WHILE WORKERS HAVE SUFFERED AU the evidence that can be got together in this dispute in the freezing industry goes to show that the workers have drifted into a backwash. They are becoming waterlogged, and there is no one to take hold of a rafting pole and push them into the running stream again. There is a difference between these men and the waterside workers, who created chaos in 191 3. The watersiders were mad drunk—or fighting drunk—on the loud talk about militant unionism. The freezing workers have been “shanghaied” into their present position. They knew nothing about it until they woke up.

Her© ar© the facts: Last season tho executive of the Wellington Union decided to take action to secure an increase in wages provided the members were prepared to do so. Two of the I officers. Messrs A. Laker and A. Me- I Leod, afterwards went to Hawke’s Bay. The men were told they were not i entitled to the increase that the | Court of Arbitration gave to other I workers, and they were told of the ' possible cost of direct action. The men decided not to take anv action. J This decision was communicated to the other freezing works in the industrial I district, and not one word of protest | came back from any of them. “GO SLOW’* IN CANTERBURY But tho honesty of the Wellington officers was not acceptable to soiuq of j tho Canterbury officials. Without con- ; suiting the North Island unions the i Canterbury men decided to go slow to enforce the demand for a penny an | hour. The freezing companies plaved them at their own game. They dismissed a percentage of the labourers \ and kept just sufficient sheep and lambs in the pens to keep the slauah- j termen at work all day long for half their usual output. The Canterbury ; officials tried to revenge themselves on Me North Island men by blaming them for the failure. An attempt was made to force them to come out or get. slow in sympathy with Canterbury. Feeling became so strong that one Wellington official had to tour Canterbury to defend himself against the suggestion that he had persuaded the Hawke’s Bay men not to take action. The position now is that all the fight is supposed to centre round the men who decided that the game wasn’t worth the candle last year. This comes about because the whole business was handed over to outsiders before the Hawke’s Bay men knew anj*thing about it. There wasn’t a Hawke’s Bay man present at the conference in Wellington when the decisions were arrived at by which this dispute was created. If they had been given a deliberative vote, as they were last year, their fate would have been in their own j hands. But there is no indication that in any place were the workers asked to decide the matter in this way. Then mark the specious manner in which others have been dragged in. The resolutions that have been given to the Press by the secretary and chief spokesman (up to the present) have been to endorse the action of the Hawke's Bay men. The alternative would be to condemn the action of their own comrades, an idea that no commonsens© person could exnect them to do. That’s not the wav to give honest men a deliberative vote on a bread and butter issue. "A HOPELESS MESS'* The Wellington Union, which em- ; braces Hawke’s Bay, has got itself into a hopeless mess. The two officers who put the position fairly before the members last season have apparently had such a bad time that they are on the other tack this time. There doesn’t seem to he a man in sight with sand enough to stand up to the big bluff. The men have been told about what the watersiders and the seamen will do

for them. What have they clone to date? Mado windy speeches, nothing else. What can they do, anyway:- u will be six weeks before any quantity of meat will reach the wharves. By that time a new team of men will be well set in the North Island sheds. Workers should read and re-rcad that old copy-book rule that “lost time is lost for ever.” If they are idle till Christmas they cannot make the time up by working extra days next year. No worker likes to go against the decision of his union. But if. as in this case, the worker’s affairs have been taken out of his hands he cannot bo accused of doing anything contrary to the union, surely? It is quite unlikely that one in ten has ever seen tho report- of this remarkable conference, at which their affairs were taken out of their hands and given over to people who never did a hand’s turn for them? If thev will try to get hold of a copy they will find their noliev outlined by no less an expert than tho secretary of the Canterbury Union, Mr Fi C. Ellis. Further, Mr Ellis said that the Freezers’ Federation was not a bad federation, but if it would not act the unions could act. and if the unions would not act the sheds could do so. This reads like a rather remarkable sort of doctrine in unionism, but as Mr Ellis has been the leader in Canterbury for many years it must be acceptable. Well, if it applies in coming out. it surely must apply in going in. WILL MEMBERS WAKE UP? It is about time the members took up their own business in their own way. They should ask themselves what is going to happen if they sit back and pass resolutions about Hawke’s Bay. Unless it can be clearly shown to them that some sort of vote has been taken by their union on this question of refusing to accept work, Vn they cannot be accused of breaking union rules. They should rememher, too. that the men who proposed this action were Canterbury representatives. The Canterbury men are not likely to be called upon till after New Yenr, os the season starts so much later. They should not allow themselves to become catspaws. pulling chestnuts out of the fire for other people. There is another point. There was no better body of unionists than the old slaughtermen. Look over the records and it will he found that they stood by their agreements like men. They kept to the terms till the last day and then fought the good fight for new terms. They were respected for it, and the employer or anybody else was never able to treat them like a lot of cheap skates. The employers are not_ without blame in the present situation. The work is seasonal and casual. When approached, thev might reasonably have discussed the matter with accredited representatives of the men. As it is. neither side is in anv mood to compromise. And unfortunately for the workers, if they spend themselves in a fight now their chances of putting nn a scrap when their award expires will have vanished. _ —AN EYE WITNESS.