COAL STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1932, Page 3

COAL STRIKE.

ALL QUIET IN WAIKATO. MASS MEETING ON MONDAY. UNION ISSUES STATEMENT. No further developments are reported in connection with the strike of miners in the Waikato. The live mines, at which no work has been clone since Thursday last, were idle again to-day. There has been no move by either side, and the discussion seems to ijow centre upon how long tlie strike will last. A mass meeting of miners will be held in Hniitly on .Monday. Only one meeting was held yesterday. This was at l'ukoiniro. when nearly 200 men were present, and it was decided to support the order of the district council, which declared a strike. The possibility of unemployed miners offering to work in the mines lias been mentioned, but the minors do not consider this likely to happen, because miners who were dismissed at Christmas are not likely to do any tiling against their former work mates.

The Waikato miners have a fortnight's pay duo to them 011 Friday, and this money will enable them to manage for a week or two without recourse to union funds. It is possible that other unions will be asked to hold meetings to consider making a levy to assist the miners should the necessity arise. Manager's Right "Not Disputed." The following statement dealing with the stoppage of work by coal miners in (lie Waikato was issued by Mr. R. L. Roberts, president of the Northern Miners' Union, this morning: — "The mine workers consider that they are locked out as the result of the action taken by the coal owners in imposing upon the miners conditions which are totally unacceptable to the workmen, thereby compelling the men to remain kilo pending an opportunity to discuss the objectionable clauses included in the owner's terms, which opportunity is refused in the meantime unless the union gives a definite assurance that the mine managers will be granted the undisputed right to engage and dismiss at their own discretion. This right has always been the privilege of the mine managers, and the union docs not dispute the right of managers in this instance, and wc are at a loss to know the intention of the coal owners with reference to this point. The only safeguard the union insists upon for the protection of the members generally is a proviso that mine employees will not bo unfairly treated by any person who may be in a position to take an unfair advantage of a workman for any reason that may arise at any time between man and man in the ordinary conduct of business from day to day. Surely this is well within the meaning ol British fair play."