DAIRY FACTORY EMPLOYEES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 12, 8 July 1911, Page 2

DAIRY FACTORY EMPLOYEES.

To the. 'Editor. Sir,—l have noticed an item of extreme importance to alt dairy companies on the one side, and the dairv employees on the other, and on no side the marvellous Arbitration Court, which certainly made a hash of justice between the two bodies interested, and, further, the Wellington Employees' Union has informed the Court without fear that in making one award the Court had on that occasion blundered, and the Court was not able to prove otherwise. This being the ease, surelv some public interest ought to be arous ''d to give justice and fair treatment to the dairy employees, who have thorn*"lves 1 rV.I hard to obtain il tlirnngh Ihe Arbitration Court, which proves oi no use to thorn as far as hours and wages are concerned, apart, from the conditions which they work under in most factories. The'first sitting of tin', Arbitration Court some four or five years ago was held in I'almerston North. The employees put the case, and asked for a fair wage and a fair day, together with improved conditions in factories. The result, was that the employers put forward the defence that if an increase in wages were granted to dairy employees the industry would go •■bung." One farmer giving evidence said if the present price of butter-fat went down a penny lie would be ruined, because he had paid -such a high price for his land. Factory managers, holdnig managers' positions, said"that they had to work for low wages to learn the tiade and work into the position of manager. Another .butter man quoted figures showing liow much money hail been lost to dairy , companies owing to butter dropping on the London market. To this Judge Sim remarked that those figures only showed the speculators' loss, and after Mr. Singleton, of the dairy Had', gave his evidence for the employers, he advocated 70 hours a week was necessary to make good cheese, but said nothing about the wage asked. The whole thing was a farce, so much so that Judge Sim. during bis remarks, asked, Did the employers claim that the dairy industry could not pav a living wage? Certainly, from the apeparanee of things, dairy companies are not infending to try to pay a fair wage to the hardest-worked workers in the Dominion. Seventy hours a. week at Ms to .-C2 5s is disgraceful. especially w i,ile the industry flourishes like it has during the past ten years. I for one have been through it all during the last 17 years, having worked for Lis per week of seven days and "found" myself. The hour; were from ,i a.m. (.ill !).' 10 and 1] I'm. dining the busy part of (he seasou. and for three months of the year most are dismissed. If these hours and wages are not the worst in the Dominion please mention them. My opinion is that if dairy companies wiil not pay a fair wage like anv other conecru ill x ew Zealand, the' sooner the •laps take possession the better, as far as the sweated dairy employee is concerned. As far as a strike is concerned in thi' dairy factories, I do not take I hat seriously, as there are too many others anxious to step info the business for a year or two. until they find things out. and if this happened, the dairv companies would find out to their loss that, inexperienced hands are not the best, articles, and that chopping and changing about of employees is a losing game.- The cheapest, and best course Is to pay a decent, wage, and have decent work done as in all other trades but the sweated dairy industry - -I am, elc.. EMI'LUYKK.