COAL STRIKE UNLIKELY

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 207, 30 August 1920, Page 5

COAL STRIKE UNLIKELY

COMPROMISE SUGGESTED. MEN MAY RESTRICT OUTPUT. TILL STOCKS .ARE EXHAUSTED. (By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, August 29 It is generally believed that a coal strike will not eventuate, but that mediation will result in the resumption of negotiations between the Government and the miners' leaders. A compromise may be arranged on the basis of increased wages for increased output of coal. Although the mines are employing a hundred thousand more workers than before the war, the annual output is 58,000,000 tons less. High wages, combined with reduced output, are making coal dear. It is estimated that over a hundred thousand pitboys voted in the miners' ballot. It is reported that the P.lyth miners' leaders are considering a proposal to call off the projected strike and to restrict the week's work to four days until the accumulated stocks of the country are exhausted. —(A. and N.Z.) THE STRIKE MAJORITY. LONDON, August 29. Although the miners' ballot will give more, than the requisite two-thirds majority for a strike, there is an unexpectedly substantial vote against a , strike, particularly in Yorkshire, Nottingham, and Northumberland. This is influencing the leaders, who are anxious to find a way out. because other unions generally are opposed to a coal strike, which would cause widespread unemployment. The ballot in South Wales resulted in i 43,471 votes in favour of a strike and 42,013 against. Sir R. S. Horne, president of the Board of Trade, will meet the leaders of the Trinle Labour Alliance on Tuesday- (A", and N.Z. Cable.)