SLAUGHTERMEN’S STRIKE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 14, 15 January 1913, Page 5

SLAUGHTERMEN’S STRIKE.

WORKS TO BE CLOSED. (Per Press Association.) Wellington, January 14. It has been decided to close the meat works at Petone and Ngahauranga as from Monday next in consequence of the slaughtermen’s notice to cease work on that date. In the event of a general strike of butchers, local supply will not be affected, as the slaughtermen at the municipal abattoirs will not, it is stated, be drawn into the struggle. ALTER THE LAW P Says the “Wairarapa Age” -.—The crisis that is just now being precipitated over the slaughtering industry, following closely on the heels cf the Waihi incident, shows how utterly ineffective for the settlement of industrial disputes is the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The time has arrived when the Industrial classes as a whole should be made to choose between arbitration and freedom of contract. The power that js given the workers to cancel registration whenever they are dissatisfied with an award, must be withdrawn, or the Arbitration Act must be wiped out entirely. The present position, which permits one section of the workers to use the strike weapon in the enforcement of its demands, and compels another section to resort to arbitration, is intolerable. Parliament can no longer permit the industries to lie subject to such a hot and cold policy. We must have one thing or the other. If the Arbitration Court is to be retained, it must be m'.de effective.