EIGHTEEN YEARS AS BAKERS’ SECRETARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 132, 25 August 1927, Page 13

EIGHTEEN YEARS AS BAKERS’ SECRETARY

The funeral takes place to-day of the late Mr. O. J. Veale, who has held the ofhee of secretary of the Auckland Bakers’ and Pastrycooks’ Union since January, 1909. Mr. Veale died in hospital on Tuesday at the age of 65 years after a severe illness. He leaves a widow and a grown-up family. Mr. Veale had a lifetime’s experience in his trade as a journeyman and as a master-baker, and before he took over the union’s office affairs he had already served as president of the union. During the course of his secretaryship the trade has been revolutionised and the workers in the industry to-day owe much to the late official’s quiet assiduity and the way in which he guided the union through critical times. He was a man valued by a host of friends for his quiet inspiring earnestness. The late Mr. Veale was secretary to the Auckland Union and to the New Zealand Bakers’ Federation. He was also secretary to the Flour-Mill Workers’ Union and at one time to the Riverhead Paper-Mill Workers’ Union. * * * An extra special meeting of the Bakers’ and Pastrycooks’ Union will be held on September 3 to elect a new secretary. The meeting will probably be held in the Trades Hall. Diplomatic notes have been exchanged between the Master Bakers’ and the Union with a view to wiping out the clause of the award against baking on holidays. The clause, which was originally offered in the counter-claims of the employers has, so to speak, turned and bitten the hand that shaped it. Last sitting of the Arbitration Court the clause was construed to debar holiday baking altogether, which was its face value. The employers may carry the Question to the court again.