FREEZING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1922, Page 5

FREEZING INDUSTRY.

STRIKE AT CHRISTCHURCH. CUT IN BONUS RESENTED. INCREASING THE UNEMPLOYED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. The threatened trouble among freezing works employees was brought to a head to-day at a majority of the works adjacent to Christchurch by the men ceasing work. The slaughtermen at both the Canterbury Freezing Company’s works at Kaiapoi are working. The action of the workers will make the employers consider the advisability of closing down the works for the season, and this will materially affect the problem of unemployment in the city. In the ordinary course the season would be finished about the middle of June, but there • was a prospect of the closing of the works being later than usual. • / A statement to the effect that the union has no official connection with the strike was made by Mr. Ellis, secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Works and Related Trades Union. Mr. Ellis said discontent had been brewing for some time among the men owing to the cut in the bonus, and in the present instance the men had taken the action entirely on their own. Indeed, he did not know until 11 o’clock this morning that operations tv ere not proceeding at certain works. Mr. Ellis was informed that it had been suggested the strike had been engineered by a section of workers from Australia. “I give that a straight-out denial,” said Mr. Ellis. “There is no truth in that.”