LABOR IN DAIRY FACTORIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 29 May 1907, Page 3

LABOR IN DAIRY FACTORIES.

To the Editor. Sir,—Your Stratford correspondent is evM i-;iy fond of beating the air or he would not have written what lie did on Saturday concerning the action of dairy factory employees in uniting to get from the farmer owners of factories simple justice and fair wages—things they liava never obtained yet, and never will if the farmers have their own way, and there was no beneficent enactment under w-hieh they can enforce their demands for fair treatment. Despite thebig prires they have enjoyed of late years, the farmer owners of factories have not raised the wages of their men or done anything to improve their conditions. There is no class in New Zealand that has done so well in recent years as the fanners; there is no class that has been pandered to so much as the farmers; there is no class that has been helped so much by the Government of the day as the farmers; there is no class that is so extremely selfish and inconsiderate as th farming class in its relations with employees and the general body politic; there' is no class that is so hard to please and get on with as the farmers; and there is uo class that is so dissatisfied as the farmer. It is pure fudge for your correspondent to say that, because we factory men ask for an increase in wages, that the industry is menaced or that the profits of dairying have reached the vanishing point. He has only to look around him and see the prosperity of the farmer to realise how big ids mistake is. and as for paying wages it is time the farmers were brought into line with employers of other labor who have tupav a 'lair wage for a fair day's work. Why should a lalmer, who is admittedly doing better than any other man in'the countrv, be allowed to pay 33s to :C2 us a week of bid ween "w and Co hours to an employee of a factory when a factory owner in a town lias to pay his men ,C 3 and over for a week of 48 hours? X 0: the factory bands have very real reason to be di-.su)islied Willi their present wages and condition-, and as for the demands that are being made, and which will be fought for throturh the Arbitration Court, [ am amazed at (heir mod-''i-aimn: and 1 believe we should materially increase them. Else factories should allow us a share in the factories' profits, hi conclusion, Sir, I would ask urn to look carefully into the whole position, and give the public the benefit <>l your opinion. If, after careful and lull consideration of the merits of the case you do not affirm that the employees of dairy factories in Taranaki are not the worst off in every respect of any class of skilled and unskilled employees in the colony, and have not there ore the grealct cause for dissatisfaction, you are not the conscionlious and impartial man I think you are. DAIRY FACTORY EMPLOYEE.