COAL MINERS' DEMAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 142, 17 June 1926, Page 16

COAL MINERS' DEMAND.

NO WORK ON SATURDAY. RESULTS IN A DEADLOCK. PROPOSED NEW AGREEMENT. A deadlock has been reached in connection with the proposed new agreement for the North Island, coal Glen Afton, P-ukemiro, Waipa, Taupiri, Hikurangi and • Wilson's Collieries, in consequence -of- the miners insisting upon a whole, holiday on Saturdays, a demandwhich the ' owners are not - prepared to concede; The-owners'! attitude is based on. the demand with which -their output will .be faced as the result of orders for. coal for the New Zealand Railway Department—the first received for many years—at a time when normal orders are sufficient to keep the mines workin? full time. The conference has been adjourned until Tuesday next. Meanwhile the owners' position has been outlined in a communication to the men which states, inter alia, that they cannot agree to discuss proposals further until the question of Saturday work has- been submitted to the men as a whole and their decision obtained, and that the owners will be prepared to resume negotiations upon receipt of the men's decision.

The representatives of the companies at the conference were:—Messrs. W. D. Holjrate (president of the Coal Mine Owners Association"-, T. O. Bishop, T. Thomson. L. Bell. P. Hunter. J. Watson. H. Gilfilian. J. Makinson, A. Burt E. P. Wripht, G. Davidson and W. J. Ralph. The union delegates were : Messrs Curran. Johnson, Byers, Hamill, Robinson, Wood, Jackson, Gavin and Smith.