It has to be said that workers from the Pukeuri Freezing works paid a large part in the development of Herbert Forest. While it is admitted that the permanent workforce could not have completed work required without the help from these guys, we did not particularly like having them foisted upon us.
It was not only freezing workers, but they were a large proportion of what was generally termed 'Winter Employment Scheme'. And was often initiated by various governments.
Sometimes we would weekly report the the number of workers and the work completed so the Minister of Labour or Forestry could stand up in parliament and tell the country how the unemployed were being utilized.
Of course politically it was deemed better to have people on employment schemes rather than have them sitting at home on the dole - and the money for such works came out of a different barrel.
The seasonal nature of the freezing work industry saw the factory closing down through the winter months, so a lot of labour became available during the winter months.
In the early days, the Labour Department guy in Oamaru would ask us to take some people, and we did so, but if we said there is no work for them, he would have pressure applied from the Dunedin office.
Of course we had a reasonably small programme before Fraser's Block was purchased and extra workers were perceived to be taking taking work form our permanent workers, so we had to 'create' work for the extras and it was difficult to motivate supervisors as well as workers to carry out work that was deemed to be filling in time.
Once the Diamond Hill block and Fraser's Block were purchased, we began to plan with the winter employment workers in mind and we utilized them well, but often for political reasons we had to take on more than we needed, but by this time, with more land and an increased interest in formation of walking tracks we could utilize these people more effectively.
We had to go through some difficulty on the way. Our local workers and I were not really union savvy and were generally lax with what could be termed 'union rules'. But of course the freezing workers were staunch union supporters and liked the rules to be followed to the letter.
This made life interesting and it made it more difficult for me to appoint supervisors to the work crews - we called them 'gangs', but that name is used for other groups these days.
Some complaints were made to their union about 'what they had to put up with' as far as transport, work conditions and equipment were concerned.
I guess this stemmed from, as far as they were concerned, work on the hill is physically demanding and guy raw from town felt the pain of getting up to speed.
One fellow walked all the way down from Government Hill - maybe a hour for a fit guy - leaving without telling his supervisor and wanting a lift home. He reckoned he had 'ricked' his stomach.
Admittedly is was a cold, Southwesterly morning, but I demonstrated the planting technique to a new recruit and then when he had a try, I pulled out the ten trees he had planted because he had obviously taken no heed of what I had shown him. He asked me to take him back to HQ and he would go home, never to return.
I had trouble with one small guy who was the union organizer - he had told me that as long as they were careful as to their demands, strike action was very productive. No strikes were held against us, which was a bonus because you don't want trouble in the workplace - besides cutting gorse with a slasher teaches humility if nothing else.
In the end freezing workers were an asset to our work programme and contributed in a valuable way.
It was not only freezing workers, but they were a large proportion of what was generally termed 'Winter Employment Scheme'. And was often initiated by various governments.
Sometimes we would weekly report the the number of workers and the work completed so the Minister of Labour or Forestry could stand up in parliament and tell the country how the unemployed were being utilized.
Of course politically it was deemed better to have people on employment schemes rather than have them sitting at home on the dole - and the money for such works came out of a different barrel.
The seasonal nature of the freezing work industry saw the factory closing down through the winter months, so a lot of labour became available during the winter months.
In the early days, the Labour Department guy in Oamaru would ask us to take some people, and we did so, but if we said there is no work for them, he would have pressure applied from the Dunedin office.
Of course we had a reasonably small programme before Fraser's Block was purchased and extra workers were perceived to be taking taking work form our permanent workers, so we had to 'create' work for the extras and it was difficult to motivate supervisors as well as workers to carry out work that was deemed to be filling in time.
Once the Diamond Hill block and Fraser's Block were purchased, we began to plan with the winter employment workers in mind and we utilized them well, but often for political reasons we had to take on more than we needed, but by this time, with more land and an increased interest in formation of walking tracks we could utilize these people more effectively.
We had to go through some difficulty on the way. Our local workers and I were not really union savvy and were generally lax with what could be termed 'union rules'. But of course the freezing workers were staunch union supporters and liked the rules to be followed to the letter.
This made life interesting and it made it more difficult for me to appoint supervisors to the work crews - we called them 'gangs', but that name is used for other groups these days.
Some complaints were made to their union about 'what they had to put up with' as far as transport, work conditions and equipment were concerned.
I guess this stemmed from, as far as they were concerned, work on the hill is physically demanding and guy raw from town felt the pain of getting up to speed.
One fellow walked all the way down from Government Hill - maybe a hour for a fit guy - leaving without telling his supervisor and wanting a lift home. He reckoned he had 'ricked' his stomach.
Admittedly is was a cold, Southwesterly morning, but I demonstrated the planting technique to a new recruit and then when he had a try, I pulled out the ten trees he had planted because he had obviously taken no heed of what I had shown him. He asked me to take him back to HQ and he would go home, never to return.
I had trouble with one small guy who was the union organizer - he had told me that as long as they were careful as to their demands, strike action was very productive. No strikes were held against us, which was a bonus because you don't want trouble in the workplace - besides cutting gorse with a slasher teaches humility if nothing else.
In the end freezing workers were an asset to our work programme and contributed in a valuable way.
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