TEMPORARY HOLD-UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 7

TEMPORARY HOLD-UP

AT WESTFIELD FREEZING WORKS. DISPUTE OVER THE MANNING ' OF CHAINS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 3. A stopwork meeting involving over 700 men occurred at Westfield freezing works, when a dispute arose among the men on the slaughtering floor as to the staffing of the chains. The stoppage lasted for fully two hours, at the end of which work was resumed.

Only partial teams were engaged in the morning to man the single chain in operation for slaughtering. As is customary under the terms of the award and on such occasions, several of the slaughtering floor labourers were given employment on the killing and dressing operations. The dispute developed among the men concerned and resulted in work being held up. No agreement could be reached and a stopwork meeting of all departments was, called. The secretary of the union, Mr W. E. Sill, was summoned, and he later arrived at the works and discussed matters with the men. The Labour Department was also advised, and an official was sent from Auckland to make inquiries. Just prior to his arrival the men adjusted their difference and work was resumed before the lunch interval.

The management, stated that the dispute did not concern it, as the trouble was purely of a domestic nature. The hold-up of the work had not unduly interfered with operations as this was a slack season.