25,000 STRIKERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1944, Page 5

25,000 STRIKERS

Serious Coal Stoppage In

South Wales

DISPUTE OVER WAGES

Rec. 10.30 a.m

LONDON, Mar. 7.

About 25,000 men are now involved in stoppages in South Wales and Monmouthshire collieries, 45 pits are idle and 22,000 tons of coal, it is estimated, are being lost daily. Twelve thousand miners from 13 collieries in Monmouthshire went on strike to-day as a result of the Porter wage award.

The go slow movement among coalminers, which has come to a head in Durham, also exists sporadically elsewhere, says the industrial writer of The Times. The Porter award, to which the miners object, suggested a complete overhapl of the wage structure of the industry, and on this subject Major G. Lloyd George, Minister of Fuel, will confer with coal owners' and miners' representatives to-morrow.

The Times, in a leader, says that pieceworkers may feel that they have a grievance, but this is no time to express it or exploit it. They are striking directly against the war effort and committing nothing less than sabotage against the forces engaged in the country's defence and their own.