SLAUGHTERMEN ON STRIKE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8369, 28 February 1907, Page 5

SLAUGHTERMEN ON STRIKE

By Telegraph—Press Association,

DUNEDIN, Last Night,

The Burnside hands held a meeting on Monday, when it was decided to form an Otago and Southland Union. It was agreed to ask for 25s per hundred. When this demand was made first thing this morning, Mr Wilson, working manager, said he was unable to give the men anything satisfactory to go on, so they left the works without starting. One man was deputed to remain behind and see if any satisfactory arrangement could be arrived at.

Mr Wilson, working manager at Burnside, says that good butchers there have been earning from 15s to 20s per day, and their average working day is rarely more than eight hours. If anyone had cause to complain it was the employers. Latterly the work had been more or less slovenly, the men rushing through to make big money. There is no doubt, he added, that their reason for going out is that they are frightened of being boycotted by the others, for they, had everything to gain and nothing to lose by standing to their work. GISBORNE, Last Night.

It is understood that proceedings will be taken against the local slaughtermen for a breach of award, though the men claim that they have not struck, but have turned up to work, though slaughtering at a reduced rate. The latest advice is that the men positively refuse to fall into line. A meeting of sheepfarmers and the company's directors was held this afternoon, to discuss the situation. Their works are now practically closed down. At Nelson's works to-day the men are taking matters'in even a more easy fashion than yesterday. All sheep have been turned away except three or four hundred lambs, with which about twenty butchers are dealing at the rate of one an hour per man. At this speed their lambs on hand should be finished in a couple of days, when there will be no more work and the men will cease work automatically. Nelson Bros, have, perforce, dispersed seventy or eighty other "employees dependent on the work of the butchers, leaving only a few to deal with a trifling number of sheep killed. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. The men are still out, though it is believed a settlement is in view. The Slaughtermen's Union, for the first time since the trouble arose, is now taking part in the trouble, and its officers waited on the manager of the Canterbury Company. The officers of the Union informed a reporter that they hoped for a settlement in a few days. The deputation explained that there was dissension among the executive officers of the Union, and some had resigned. A special meeting is to be called to fill the vacancies. They assured the companies that the Union was anxious to bring about a settlement. The companies' terms will be submitted to the Union at a meeting to be called at once. The Labour Department intend to institute proceedings against the men implicated in the slaughtermen's strike at Islington and Belfast, and the Arbitration Court will sit on Monday to hear the cases. INVERCARGILL, Last Night.

The Mataura men, who demanded 25s per hundred, continue work, having agreed to accept a retrospective payment according to the new award. The season, which commenced on January 12th, has been the busiest experienced in Southland, overtime being worked almost from the start. Wallacetown has been killing 1,500 per day, Mataura 1,200 to 1,400, and Ocdan Beach over 1,000. Clients are willing to keep stock back as feed is fairly plentiful. The number of men idle at Wallacetown is 45 and Ocean Beach 30, in addition to several chamber hands at the Bluff Freezing Works, which is run in conjunction with the Wallacetown Slaughtering Works.

PAREORA MEN FINED. TIMARU, February 26. The Arbitration Court delivered its judgment this morning in the case against the slaughtermen's assistants at the Pareora Freezing Works. The court held that the defendants had been guilty of taking part in a strike, and fined each of them £5. The court further announced that its decision in cases against the Wellington slaughtermen would be delivered to-morrow in Wellington. In the course of the judgment, Mr Justice Sim said the evidence proved that the defendants were working under an award made by the court on June 20th, 1905, which embodied an agreement arrived at by the parties themselves after the dispute had been referred to the court. Counsel for defendants had not suggested that his clients had not been guilty of taking part in a strike. The Court agreed with Mr Raymond's argument to the extent that if all the parties to a dispute come to an agreement which they embody in an industrial agreement, completed and filed in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the court, apart from section 14 of the Amending Act, 1905, would not have power to make an award, but that was not the present case. Here the parties agreed to certain terms, which were to be embodied in an award of the court, and until this award was made there had been no effectual settlement of the dispute. In making the award as it did the court was exercising its jurisdiction for the settlement and determination of an industrial dispute. The Act had made striking punishable as an offence in all cases where an award or industrial agreement is in force, and defendants were therefore guilty of taking part in a strike.

GORE, Last Night. The butchers at the Mataura Freezing Works, sixteen in number, struck, this afternoon, after killing 600 sheep that were in the pens. This action, the men readily enough admit, is not through any complaints against the employers, but out of loyalty to the Northern strikers. It is stated, on fairly reliable authority, that intimation reached the Mataura butchers from the North that if they did not go out they would be boycotted by the Northern unionists. This has'coerced them into taking the step they would in'alljprobability not otherwise have

taken. To-night fifteen of the sixteen butchers met and discussed the position. It is understood that the men are resolved to remain out. They frankly admitted, in discussion, the fairness of the company towards them, but expressed a fear that ,a refusal to join in the general movement would cause them to be posted throughout the colonies as blacklegs, thus preventing them gaining employment elsewhere. It was definitely decided, therefore, to remain out. A consignment vf 200 sheep arrived at the works by train this afternoon, and the men decided not to kill these. The strike is confined entirely to the killing of sheep. Beef will be killed as usual. There are forty head of cattle in the pens at present, and these will be killed to-morrow. NAPIER, Last Night. Two of the slaughtermen of the North British and Hawke's Bay Freezing Company have gone out, today, but so far none of the others have done so. The demands of the two men were practically the same as those in other places. WELLINGTON, Last Night. The Acting-Premier (Hon. HallJones), in reply to a telegram from Mr de Latour, managing director of the Gisborne Sheepfarmers' Company suggesting the advisability of the Government arranging for the immediate despatch from England or the Cape of one hundred butchers as assisted immigrants, telegaphed as follows:—"In reply to your telegram, I am of opinion that proceedings now pending before the Arbitration Court will supply the remedy and meet the difficulty you refer to."