THE WAINGAWA MEAT WORKS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10713, 6 September 1912, Page 5

THE WAINGAWA MEAT WORKS

I REPLY,'TO THE ARBITRATIONISTS, BY MR ROD. MoRAS. Messrs Rod Mcßae, J. Breuer and 0. R. Smith,waited upon the.editor of the, Wairarapa Age last evening, .and asked permission to reply to the statements made in our last issue by the employees of the. Waingawa. meat 1 works., Mr Mcßae stated that in the first place he desired to thank the Age for the fair and impartial report given of the meeting held on Tuesday ; night. "In regard to the statement made by an official of the Company that the newspapers could not publish information until it was first perused, I am prepared," said Mr Mcßae, "to go before any tribunal and take an oath that the statement was made in the presence of ti witness." • As to the agreement not holding good in a Court of Law, Mr Mcßae s<aid he would like to show 1 the men what notice the employers took of the law.. He asked them to look up the Official Year Book for 1911, There they would find that 539 employers had been chargeo. before the Court .with having broken awards and agreements. The Labour Department prosecuted in 519 cases!. In 453 x;ases convictions were recorded, and 66 cases were'dismissed. The Uniong had prosecuted for breaches in twenty cases, and in fourteen cases there were convictions. There were 68 prosecutions against Unionists for striking. The registered Unions of employers numbered 118, with 4262 members, and the registered, unions' of employees numbered 308, with 57,091 members. .On' the basis cf these figures, one in. every eight employers had broken their agreempm during 1911, and a fraction over one in ,1000 employees had Woken: theirs. Mr Mcßae said he gave these figures to show that it made very little dif-, ference whether an agreement was le gal or not, so far re. the employers were concerned. Regarding Mr.Cooper's emphatic denial that the dispute had left the epmpany, Mr Mcßae asked how the contents of the agreement hid reached Wanganui, as the agrnients were not posted in the works until after April 6th. Also, would Mr Cooper deny that the Waingawa Meat Company was associated with the Employers' Association? "Regard- ■ ing the telescope," said Mr Mcßae, "I might-want a telescope to see the agreement, but I don't want a telescope to see through their class." In reference to the alleged victimisation, Mr. Mcßae said he would' leave | ■Smith and Breuer to explain in re- j gard to their employment at the gaswork*. "The only reason," said Mr i Moßio. "that the Meat Works Employees' Union was useless was that the men had refused to stand together as unionists. Had the whole of the members ©f the Union been here, we would have shown them • whether we were useless or not." Mr Mcßae denied that he had had anything to do I with the drawing up of the agreement. ' His connection! with the agreement was j that he was sent to the office with the secretary by a "ballot of the members | at. a meeting, numbering something like forty, to see that there were no "points" got on to the Union by the employers. In regard to the "Red Flag agitators," Mr Mcßae stated I that the Red Flag stood for the em- i ancipation of the workersfi and was a borrowed phrase used by the Capital- j istic Press of this country to frighten • week-kneed unionists of the Waingawa j type. He ; thought that.thfr, "white flag used in 1 the Boer War would be i more.appropriate for their class." As to answering all his "fanatical" statements, and seeing that they do net wish a paper contoversy, Mr Mcßae stated that he challenged the Waingawa employees to meet him on the public platform at any date to be fixed by themselves. Mr J. Breuer stated that so fir as, the employment of himself and Smith at the gasworks was concerned, they had worked part of on© day, being sent for at 9.30 in the morning, and not knowing there was work at the meat-works. They went down to the works next morning, leaving a week's work at the coal, and were told that they were not wanted. As to the goods being perishable, they were skins, and had previously been left for a longer period, and under worse circumstances. There was no reason why the skins should have perished, if they had been looked after, as on otihef occasion*.

Mr Smith endorsed tbe remaks of Mr Breuer.