THE FREEZING DISPUTE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1920, Page 5

THE FREEZING DISPUTE.

THE WORKERS' REPLY. * "SHUTTING AND BOLTING THE DOOR." . By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. To-day Mr. Niall, secretary of the Freezing Workers' Federation, made the following reply to the statements contained in the letter received by him from representatives of the owners: "The position is that the companies flatly refused to meet representatives of men to discuss the question of wages. They have laid down what they consider as' sufficient increase to the men, and will not hear the men's side in refutation of their proposals. The companies' final offer has been referred to the men, and has been turned down right throughout the Dominion, showing that what the companies claimed to be a generous offer is not so regarded by the men in the industry. It has been dinned into the workers for the past eighteen months that they should get into closer cooperation with the employers to discuss industrial matters, it being held tlmt this would be of benefit to workers and employers, but now that the Freezing Workers' Federation wish to do this, the employers shut and bolt the gate on them and give them no opportunity of discussing what they claim to be fair and reasonable rates, although not up to the purchasing power of wages the men were receiving in 1914. There is no discrimination in favor of the hourly hands, as suggested by the employers, because they do not earn nearly the same wages as pieceworkers, and therefore 22J per cent to hourly hands is not nearly as great a concession as 20 pelcent to pieceworkers The freezing industry, according to the Prime Minister, is a most important industry in this country, and if the owners of the freezing works are quite content to keep their works shut just at the time when the new season's meat should be going out of the country to balance the excess of imports over exports, well then that is their funeral, but it must be obvious to anyone closely connected with the commercial life of this country that it is a matter that concerns the. whole of the Dominion."