FREEZING WORKS FEDERATION

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10642, 24 May 1912, Page 5

FREEZING WORKS FEDERATION

QUESTION OF ORGANISATION. Mil ai. J. BEAItIXKYS ATTITUDE. The following ct/m-iniriiiention has keen.' forwarded to the Wairarapa Age from ClirLstdhurch. We j>nbJiv-li it for what it is worth: — "At a conference of delegates from the viarious. freezing works throughout IVew Zealand, held in Wellington [ an January of this year, it was decided i •to form a Freezing and A.llkd Trade federation. The coVfercmeo decided that the Executive for the current | year should ihe in Christchuroh, and •appointed the Executive Committee of the Canterbury. Freezing "Works ■'(Jivion *o act in tint capacity. In 'accordance with th? recommendation from the .Conference, the Executive appointed .Mr Jl. A. Campbell, organiser for the •.Federation. About this a strike oceicrred'at two of the ifreezing works at Wellington, and the organiser .was instructed tu proceed to (Wellington on behalf of the Federation, to nVider what assistance he could. On reaching Wellington the ■ . . I o'rganioer tried to obtain an interview ' •with the seoretwy of the Wellington j Union (Mr M. J. Reardon),. but that [ gentleman from the start assumed an attitude of hostility towards the Federation's organiser. He refused to liave 'anything to do with him. His reasons 'for refusing to accept the as-1 isistamce of the Federation's organiser • ivvere purely personal ones. On being further urged by Mr | Campbell to gink all personal differ- ' ences for th-s time 'being, and act together in'their official capacity for the ibenefit of the unen, the organiser only got more abuse for His trouble. From Wellington t'he organiser went to uMasij.rton, to assist the men rolho .had just for.med a Union with their dispute with the local freezing company. Now, in 'connection with this dispute, that organiser has been cf fixing up a bad agreement ton 'bJlhalf of the men, and also accepting lower wages than were ruling for the same class of work in -Wellington. (Now, the "facts of the cn.se are those :/, fllhe organiser did not 'arrive in Mastterton, or know nnythfoig about the dispute until thel day after the demands had'been drawn np and submitted to the employers. As soon as the organiser saw the demands the men iluul nfade lie told them they were too I low, but feeing that the demands were then in the liands of the employhe (advised them to do the oniv thing they could under the oircum«ta,nccis; that was, to im.ake the agreeimemt for as short a period as possible, with tslie result 'that the agreement expires on ■iflie 31st July of this year. The organiser w»s present as ene of the men's representatives that rrnet the en iand the agreement arrived at for the time being -was satiiitfa'oi'ory to the men, as it micant to them la rise of from Is 6d to 2s all round. In the facet of the foregoing it is impertinent to accuse* the organiser of itpccepting a wrong agreeiment dn tbehalf of t'he 'Maeterton

men. . . On February, 13th, Mr Reardbh, :ri 'writing to rth© • secretary of ~itihe iMa siterton Union, is reported to have added the following postscript to his le f - Iter:— 'A rurfn named Campbell has blo.v i fin here from Ohristchurch. He calls .himself the Freezers' Organiser. Turn ihitn flight down if he comes up to Mae-to-ton. I know .tihis gentleman.' On April Bth the Secretary of the "Freezing iWorks, Federation received the following letter:— 'Dear Sir,— I understood you to my that you were of the opinion.that it would not 'be gdod policy to allbw to proceed further with his 'organising in .this district!. I have •just learned that <he ilims bedn getting an some of hip clever work in Wangatnui. , ,Wc have just established a Harwich there, and are.in the middle of. ■ . negotiations with the em,p)oyers. ! iDo'i ~,v y o,u want him .to. goti in ; ,a v repetition,: of his '.Wairarapa' work, where be arrived at an agreement for a lower fwage Khan our men had been getting [before tthcy came out on strike. I bare. just gjpt but'of .hospital, hut even mart - o'an gpt 4"ri«.-inade running .on: me. -xj say this with belbdnung modesty, and witTa full knowledge of eome ni the wonderfull performances of vj-aw M.j. SEW-'

DON.' Mr Reardui accuses the organiser of getting in some of bis clever work in Wanganui, ote. The facts are these: The oiganiser visited Wanganui on 'his way through the North Is land, 'and addressed the men there, urging them ,to join the Federation, and in no way had anything to c!to with tfl» dispute. We think the. abova letters- will show the porkers what they are up against, and -Winn is preventing them at taming sol : darity. : Though our - Federation has only been in existence since January of this year, the success achieved to dat? has exceeded our most sanguine anticipations. We 'have succeeded in getting every Union connected with the , industry in ihe South Island into our Federation, a.nd with the exception of tfaiee Unions, we have been entire!v giuceespful m the North. We have accomplished this m lass- than six months, despite the unreasonable hostility shown by Mr Jteardon towards our organisation, and we wish that gentleman to understand that we are determined to brJng every worker in the industry in New Zealand into this Freezing Works .Federation, the aims and objects of which <havei already received the approval of more than three fourths of thd workers engaged in the industry in New Zealand.

W 7 e are prepared to hold out the hand of comradeship to Mr Be'ardon and co-operate .with him wibh the object of furthering the organisation of the workers in the freezing or any other industry, but we wish to make it quite clear to him that if he iper-■s-i&ts in -making of 'himself an obstaclein the path of progress, he must be removed.

Mr Reardon poses as a. Unionist and a supporter of :» party that is urging the organising of the various industrial -gfou.ps into ,a Dominion Federatfon.; thai is our object in regard to the freezing works industry. We wOuld of .oom:so.'.muiph rather "have his aiisis'tailco than his opposition. We regret having to give publicity to this matter, but in the interest of the members of the Federation, we are compiled, under tl?e circumstances, to do so. SIDNEY D". WALLIS, President. GEORGE FALGAR, Vice-President F. ELLIS, Secretary."