COALMINERS' TERMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 99, 28 April 1922, Page 5

COALMINERS' TERMS.

PROPOSALS OF OWNERS. THE TWO SHIFT SYSTEM. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) SYDNEY, April 27. The terms offered to the miners by the coalowners, in additior»to a 33 1-3 per cent reduction in wagna, also include the restoration of front and back shifts, the abolition of the cavilling system or a 12 months' cavil, that machines be used in pillar work when required, that if the management desires employees shall work six days in each week, that the hours of surface workers be calculated exclusive of meal times, and those of the underground and contract men from the time the last n»B descends until the first ascends in each shift, that the distribution of coal free or below selling price to householders be discontinued, that only cix recognised holidays yearly be observed, that the hours of back Saturday be raised from six to eight. The conference at which this offer waE made has adjourned to allow the minere , representatives to place it before the miners' lodges. The conference will resume at an ca-ly date, when the miners' attitude will be disclosed. —(A, and N.Z. table.) REJECTION OF PROPOSALS. MEN STAND BY DEMANDS. SYDNEY, this day. A special meeting of the Council of the Coalminers' Federation rejected the employers' proposals, and decided tc stand behind the unions own claims already placed before the tribunal. Mr. Willis, the secretary, has issued a manifesto urging workers not to b< stampeded into a general stoppage of al Australian tradp. The Union Congress, to be held in Melbourne in June, he said, would probably formulate a definite policy for safeguarding the interests of workers. He reminded the men it was remarkable that a previous industrial upheaval occurred during the Nationalist regime, and another was threatening on its return to power. — (A. and N.Z.) The New South Wales coal miners propose to introduce into the coal mining industry a system resembling job control. The key to the general plan of the ! scheme is given in the first clause: of the preamble, which states that "in order to defeat the employers' practice of victimi- , cation and discrimination,' it is recom- ; mended that no member of the federation ' should accept work at any other colliery ■ than that at which he is now employed ■without having first obtained a note from the district secretary." In the course of an official statement it was pointed out that the first step to the control of I industry must be tiie complete control of I labour. The official organ of the Miners' Federation, referring to the scheme, says: "This will not be job contrel, although the principle is thus loosely termed Under capitalism the workers cannot posI sibly have job control. It will come wher the present system has been swept aside But control of labour supply—as it reallj is—is something which is by no means difficult when the workers are wel' organised, and arc sufficiently class con Fcious. In the fights which lie ahead oni of the big efforts on the part of the employers will be to weed out every militant worker, -whether he be Com rauniet, Socialist, wobbly, or jusl militant unionist."