TWO DAYS TO GO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3742, 30 January 1913, Page 5

TWO DAYS TO GO.

SLAUGHTERMEN WILL “DOWN TOOLS” TO-MORROW.

THE POSITION IN POVERTY BAY

,UNION SECRETARY REPLIES TO MR. deLAUTOUR.

Developments of particular interest are expected to be shortly reported in connection with the slaughtermen’s dispute. The position at present is that the killers will “down tools” on Friday evening, in accordance with the decisison arrived at. The conference of employers which is to be held at Wellington this week will be watched with great interest, ior whatever the deliberations at this meeting bring forth will have an important bearing on the position. Statements Challenged. The Secretary of the Poverty Bay Union, Mr C. Snowsell, conversed with a “Gisborne Times” representative on the subject of the statement made to Mr C. A. deLautour, and which was published in yesterday’s issue. Mr Snowsell said ( that as to tho statement that slaughtermen are earning over £7 a week, he challenged this as it is exceptional, and is not being earned by more than half-a-dozen slaughtermen in the district. The average was less than £5. The slaughtermen generally took exception to the remark that “the Federation appears to control the free action of the local men in every locality.” “It must not be understood,” Mr Snowsell says, “that the Federation is leading the local men by the nose. We are quite capable of looking after ourselves. Butchers are not the stamp of men to be led by anybody. The Federation does nothing without the support of the slaughtermen as a whole.” As to the suggestion that the Federation appears to he taking the hit in its own mouth, so to speak, and endeavoring to assemble the disintegrated unions, whose stands in the position are said to be varied. As a matter of fact, Mr Snowsell holds that the Federation has the warm support of every union. The demands which had caused the whole trouble were tho result of a week’s thorough deliberation by 22 or 23 slaughtermen, Gisborne being represented at the conference. Nothing was done hurriedly at_ the conference, every point being thoroughly thrashed out. Discussing the dispute in general, Mr Snowsell said that if the employers had offered the men 27s 6d and the new conditions demanded, it was probable that the terms would have been accepted. But the men, lie says, now want 30s, and might probably agree to a compromise as to the conditions. Concerning the clause in the demands which states that “learners shall be employed in such proportion to slaughtermen that there shall not be more than one learner to 20 slaughtermen,” the secretary said lie be- ' lieved that the men were prepared to give way in this matter, and to leave the proportion as in the previous award, ~1 learner to every 10 men. There is no agreement in force, as is the case in Wellington, between the freezers and the slaughtermen, in the. event of a strike. An Acceptable Agreement. , Local slaughtermen state that they ■ would be willing to work under tlie , new Waingawa agreement. It is a remarkably good agreement from the ■ men's point of view. It makes over- ■ ' time work impossible, except at the , rate of 4-5$ per 100 sheep, unless < there happens to have been a holiday j during the week, when overtime may be worked on Saturday afternoon at j the rate of 37s fxl per hundred. These 1 rates put all overtime out of. the question, at which the union members j are greatly pleased. They say that 1 they wish to make all overtime impos- a sible, because the work is too hard for 1 men to endure it for more than the usual hours. < It is being suggested in some quar- • ters now that the companies’ offer of 1 27s 6d was a bad tactical move on 1 their part. As an employee of one of the local companies said to a re- j j porter, “the men were given 27s 6cl j 1 without firing a shot, and they at i once became a great deal more deter- 1 mined to hang out for the other half- < crown.” This seems to be a. fairly correct analysis of tho position, for i tho men rejected the offer of 27s b'd 1 by a majority of two to one in the ballot. f

“I have no doubt,” remarked one of the Gisborne workers yesterday, •‘that the employers intend to make it a test, but we do not believe it will be a lengthy test. They will grant the 30s all right.”

The Freezers and the “Killers.”

An interesting - aspect of the present situation is stated to be the relationship between the local freezers and the butchers. The freezers are. of course, many times more numerous than the killers at every factory. In the case of a strike of the butchers unless the boards be manned by fre* labor no work would be required of the freezers even if they were prepared to stay on. What is most likely to happen when the butchers stop -work on Friday is that the local factories must at any rate temporarily close down. Now, according to a prominent Laborite, no understanding exists between the butchers and the freezers at all in the matter. Despite the fact that so many more freezers will bo affected the former have never been consulted by the latter. Naturally there is a good deal is dissatisfaction on the point. It is claimed that the butchers are taking up a selfish attitude. They are, it is said, taking it for granted that the freezers will stand by them in the dispute. But, so says our informant, it is not at all certain that the freezers will agree to do so unless a comprehensive arrangement he come to. Were the- butchers to promise to help the freezers subsequently to get the advance they hold they too are entitled to, the freezers would only too willingly stand by them in connection with the present dispute. If the supposed wound is not healed there is just a possibility that a large number of experienced butchers among the freezers might then not he unwilling to man the boards in the event of the “killers” going out without first coming to an. arrangement with the freezers. Meetings at which the matter will be considered will probably lie held in the course of a day* or two.