COAL MINERSDISPUTE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21972, 22 December 1936, Page 6

COAL MINERSDISPUTE

CANTERBURY DISTRICT WORKERS CONCILIATION PROCEEDINGS ADJOURNED Little agreement was reached in Conciliation Council in the dispute between the Canterbury Coal Miners' Union and their employers. The main points in dispute were wages and hours of work, and these and related questions were held oyer before reference to the Arbitration Court. , . .- •The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr S. Ritchie, presided. The workers' assessors were Messrs A. McLagan (Brunnerton), F. Mitchell, H. Mason, and W. Hinks (GlentunneD. The employers' assessors were Messrs D. I. Macdonald (Christchurch), E. Charles (Coalgate). C. Green (Coalgate), and C. E. Purchase (Christchurch). The occasion, Mr Ritchie stated, at the conclusion of the day's sitting, was the first on which the Conciliation Council had been required to consider the conditions in coal mines in the Canterbury district, Coalgate. Glentunnel, and Mount Somers being the chief areas concerned. Consequently, he had allowed considerable latitude in the discussion in order that the parties could give the fullest consideration between now and February to the points in dispute. The workers sought a five-day week, with seven hours a day for underground and surface workers. The wages claimed by the workers ranged from 18s a day for adult surface workers, 19s for truckers and horse drivers, and 22s for shot fir*s, to 23s 8d for winding engine-drivers engaged in hauling men. The employers' proposals were for an 88-hour fortnight, with the provision of alternate Saturdays idle, or a weekly Saturday halfhclidav. no week to cemprise more than 48 hours, The rates of pay of* fered by the employers were 16s 7d a shift for truckers, rope-road attendants, horse drivers, pit bottomers, and winchmen over 20 years of age, with 17s 9d a shift for first-class shiftmen and miners taken from the face for any other work. For adult surface workers the rate offered was 15s 3d a shift, a scale being provided for workers under the age of 20. Agreement was reached on several mino rpoints, and the sitting was adjourned until March 5, 1937.