WORK RESUMED

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20991, 19 December 1939, Page 9

WORK RESUMED

BELFAST DISPUTE SETTLED THIRD chain operating DECLARED SEPARATE UNIT (By Telegraph.—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Monday Work will be resumed to-morrow at Borthwick’s Belfast freezing works. This agreement was reached this morning and later in the day the chairman of the disputes committee, Mr S. Ritchie x announced his finding that the third chain which the company proposed to establish was a seperate unit and that men from the existing chains could not be transferred to it. This ruling, the chairman explained, prevented participation by the men employed on the additional chain sharing in the pool earned by the existiing two chains. The contention of the company when it advised its intention to introduce a third chain, was that the six men employed last season as extras on the first two chains should be employed so that reliefs should be available at any time for No. 1 and No. 2 chains, which employed 35 men each.

“ The decision of the committee ” said Mr Ritchie, “ does not dispose of the question of spare workers, who the necessary for the efficient working of the industry, but that matter is being discussed by the parties concerned.”