PETONE WOOLLEN MILLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1916, Page 3

PETONE WOOLLEN MILLS.

YVAXT OP TACT SHOWN THE CASE FOR THE EMPLOYEES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, March 17. There are some indications this evening that the dispute which has brought about a stoppage at the Petone Woollen Mills will be settled within the next few days. Both sides are anxious to get the looms running again, and the issue has been reduced already to comparatively small dimensions. ' The Minister for Lafcor (Rt. Hon. W. P. Massey) has not yet been brought into the dispute, in any official way, nor has the Conciliation Commissioner (Mr. Hally) been given a chance to try his powers of persuasion. The negotiations that have taken place so far do not appear t» have been conducted with all the tact that was necessary. It might have keen admitted in the first place that the woollen workers are feeling the rise in the cost of living acutely. Your correspondent was informed to-day, in response to an inquiry on the subject, that the average weekly earnings of a male operative at the mills amount to from £2 8s to £2 in?. Most of these men are married, the war having thinned the ranks of the single men. The company adds that a certain amount of overtime has to be added to these amounts; the workers reply that the overtime earnings are irregular and do not materially affect the. average. "Don't you think you might have postponed the dispute until the end of the war, in view of the fact that the stuffs you are producing are wanted for the troops?" was a question put to one of the niejnbers of the union to-day. "Our answer to that," the man replied, "is that if the Government will requisition the mill for war purposes, under the Act pased last session, we will all return to our work without making any stipulation about wages at all. We are willing to do our bit towards helping Hie troops. But we happen to know that we are not embarrassing the Defence Department. There is no shortago of khaki cloth, and I don't think you will find anybody in authority to say that there is. This patriotic issue has been raised by the employers for ■their own purpose, and we say that a company which is working on big Government contracts can well afford to pay reasonable wages. I may say that the Petone girls have put many bun-1 dreds of pounds into the patriotic funds and they have not spared themselves on the r/.ilitary work."

Representatives of the company stated that they had nothing to say' on the subject. The directors lmd made what they regarded as a generous offer—an advance of five per cent, on the old rate of wages—and they were not prepared to go further. The stoppage at the mills was a strike, and it was for the Government to consider what steps ought to be taken. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Munitions had nothing to say on tlie subject to-day. Tlie secretary of the Union states that some thirty men and 130 girls have left the mills. The men will all be in other jobs within the next few days, and the fTirls, too, can find employment. They do not regard their action as a Strike at all. Your correspondent learned that a temporary reduction in the output of military woollens will not inconvenience the Department materially, though g prolonged stoppage, of more than one mill would be a serious matter. There are stocks of cloth in band.