The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1926. SLAUGHTERMEN’S DISPUTE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1926, Page 8

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1926. SLAUGHTERMEN’S DISPUTE

The carefully considered statement made by the chairman of the Wairoa Farmers- Freezing Co., Mr. J. S. Jessep, in regard to the trouble which has arisen over the demands made by freezing works employees for increased wages sets out very clearly the position in which the freezing industry stands to-day. Wages in that industry have been fixed by the Arbitration Court, and the award does not expire until next June. Apart altogether from the rate which a good worker can make under the award, the fact that it is in existence demands that it be as loyally accepted by the workers as it has been by the employers. It must be remembered that since the award was granted, freezing companies throughout New Zealand have been suffering from lean days, some of them indeed having been obliged to close their doors. The profits made by those companies who can claim some measure of success have been in no case extravagant. In other words, of the three parties to the industry the shareholders, who provide the works, and the farmers, who send their stock to be killed, have been suffering losses. The third party —the employee—has not been asked to share this loss in any way, nor is he at the present time being asked to forego any pay or privilege which the award of the court has granted to him. As Mr. Jessep says, “while union leaders are demanding a 44-hour week, farmers are working nearer 84 hours per week,” and there is unfortunately no regular wage’ awaiting the farmer at the end of each week. So far as the output of the freezing works is concerned there is not the slightest reason to anticipate that this season’s meat will command better prices than those obtaining last year, and therefore the industry cannot anticipate better returns wherewith to meet increased wages or other costs. The industrial depression in Great Britain, which the coal strike has brought about, will not be lifted in a week or a month, and so long as the purchasing power of the British wage-earn-ing community is low, so long will prices for our- meat be kept down. Mr. Jessep, as vice-chair-man of the Meat Producers’ Board, has had special opportunities of sizing up the position in regard to the freezing industry, and when he maintains that the industry simply cannot carry the additional load of an increase in rates of pay he is stating a fact which is supported by the strongest evidence possible. If the freezing industry is to keep its head above water during this coming season it must have costs of production kept at the lowest possible level. Who ever is responsible for the demand being made for increased wages has shown little judgment, for a more ill-advised moment in which to make such a demand eould scarcely be conceived. It looks as though, once more, the “Reds” of the Union have taken charge of the majority of its members. They, as level headed men, must be aware, firstly, that it is not playing the game to refuse to work under an award of the court the privileges of which they have hitherto claimed and received; and, secondly, that if costs of production more than swallow up the returns from an industry, that industry will surely perish. There are indications that in Hawke’s Bay something of this commonsense is beginning to be made manifest among the men on strike. One thing is certain, a steady flow of exports is not merely desirable: it is absolutely essential if the Dominion is to pay its way. If the organised workers in the freezing industry attempt to cheek rather than to stimulate this flow, they will find that ways and means are at hand to brush such foolishness aside.