A SLAUGHTERMEN'S STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 331, 5 March 1910, Page 5

A SLAUGHTERMEN'S STRIKE

. ' IX AUCKLAND. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Some time ago a- deadlock occurred at •the Southdown works of the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company, through the refusal of the floor hands assisting the slaughtermen to go on with their work unless paid higher wages. The disaffected hands were not very important high-skilled workmen, and the seriousness of their refusal to work lay in the fact that it would be impossible for the slaughtermen to go on with their work unless their assistants could be persuaded to do the subsidiary work. Accordingly an effort was made-by the management to get the men to go <>n with their duties until the matter in dispute could be settled in the proper legal way at a conference before the Conciliation Commissioner. Their effort Was successful, and the men went back to work till yesterday, when the dispute was referred to a conference of representatives from the men and the employers, with the Commissioner (Mr. T. Harle Giles) in the chair. This conference lasted from 7.30 p.m. until midnight, Snd in the end effected nothing. The point of difference upon which the parties failed to agree was that relating to preference to unionists. To-day the men went on strike. Their demands are for more wages and preference to unionists. These are concessions which the company are not at present prepared to grant. The employers' representatives were given no inkling at the conference last night that a strike was likely to eventuate this morning, but when the whistle blew for the hands to resume, the slaughtermen's assistants came to the works as usual and refused to turn to unless thev were granted the concessions they ban tried unsuccessfully to get at the conference. The strike has occurred at a most inopportune time for the company, and 'for the graziers. The freezing season i« now at its height, and farmers and export buyers have booked space in the freezing chambers for stock to be killed and exported. If the strike continues all these arrangements will be upset, and the seriousness of the position can be readily realised. So far the men have not moderated their demands, and the company are not prepared to recede from the position they have taken up with regard to them.