STRIKE CALLED IN AMERICAN MINES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 272, 17 November 1941, Page 7

STRIKE CALLED IN AMERICAN MINES

NATIONAL DANGER Plan Prepared For Army Commandeer L'nited Press v Association. —Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. WASHINGTON, Nov. 16. Mr. Lewis has announced * that negotiations for the settlement of the Appalachian mine dispute were terminated without agreement. As a result 53,000 miners in the coal pits owned by the major steel companies will apparently remain idle tomorrow, despite President Roosevelt's urgent requests that there should be no interruption in production. Mr. Lewis said the position of the steel executives was that they could only make an agreement on the basis of no compulsory unionism. The position of the united mine workers was that the steel executives should accept the Appalachian agreement according to the rule of the industry. Both part'es will report separately to the President to-morrow. The executive board of the Congress of Industrial Organisations .unanimously voted its unqualified of the united mineworkers' efforts to obtain compulsory unionism in the Appalachian coal mines. The resolution declared that the steel companies' attitude was "unAmerican and not conducive to the (best interests of the defence programme." Support Pledged In War In a report prepared for the opening of the C.1.0. convention tomorrow, the president. Mr. Philip Murray, asserted that Hitlerism must be destroyed, and added: "C.1.0. offers its complete support to President Roosevelt's policy of furnishing all possible economic and material aid to Britain, Russia and China." J The report said the defence programme was being sabotaged by those who purported to further it through destruction of the basic rights of labour. Stating that it is essential to national defence that coal production . be continued without delay. President Roosevelt earlier asked the A coalmine union and the steel comy pany leaders, who conferred with h him at the White House, to carry on il their negotiations for the settlement i- of the dispute.

The President's Warning The President gave a warning that if legislation became necessarv to ensure the production of coal Congress without question would pass it.

"The Government will not order, nor will Congress legislate ordering compulsory unionism," he said. "It is true that by agreement in manv plants compulsory unionism operates, but this is a result of legal collective bargaining, not of compulsion. 1 am asking you to please talk over this problem. If you can't agree today keep on conferring to-m'orrow. Sunday, and let me have some kind of report on Mondav—a report of agreement or at least that vou are making progress." Mr. Roosevelt earlier consulted Mr. H. L. Stimson. Secretary for War, and army officials in the affected area. A plan has been prepared for the army to commandeer the mines if necessary.

The Washington correspondent of the New \ork Times savs a group of members of the House of Representatives is drafting broad new anti-strike legislation as a preliminary to an attempt to force action by Congress to restrict stoppages of war production. The proposals include a compulsory 30-day "coolingoff period" between the call for a strike and the effective date, prohibition of mass picketing, and freezing of the existing open and closed shop arrangements. The Chicago correspondent of the New York Times says President Roosevelt is expected to intervene next week to avert the national railroad strike which is scheduled to begin on December 7. The threat of a tie-up grew stronger to-day as the union men studied the instructions governing the conduct of the strike. The rules were rushed to 10,000 local chairmen of operating brotherhoods with a membership of 350,000 railwaymen.