DECISION TO STRIKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1940, Page 9

DECISION TO STRIKE

AUCKLAND BUTCHERS ALLEGED WAGES GRIEVANCE. DISSATISFACTION WITH NEW AWARD. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 3. A decision to declare a strike next weekend in the event of their wages grievances not being settled by then was reached at a special general meeting of members of the Auckland Butchers’ Industrial Union of Workers. The decision, which was reached by secret ballot of 250 members present, also authorised union officials to seek a conference with employers’ representatives in the course of this week and to report the outcome of any deliberations at a further general meeting next Sunday. It was emphasised that there is no dispute with the employers and that ths> course of the employees’ action is dissatisfaction with the wages provided for in the new award made by the Court of Arbitration recently. Wages for butchers and assistants in retail shops and allied establishments were fixed at the same rates as the old award, which expired last February. The claim filed by the union sought increases ranging from £1 a week for first shopmen to 12s. 6d. a week for female assistants.

At today’s meeting, which extended over two hours, it was stated that several of the large employers had been paying above the award rates. One firm was stated to have been paying ss. a week above .the award rates to senior hands and 3s. a week to juniors. It was also mentioned that last week on the first pay day under the new award, another firm had paid its employees an additional ss. Several of the butchers employed in single unit shops had also received a similar increase in wages.