MINE STRIKE FOR 30-HOUR WEEK

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 5

MINE STRIKE FOR 30-HOUR WEEK

Aid From New Zealand Sought

REQUEST OF AUSTRALIAN WORKERS

* The threat of a coal strike throughout Australia, in an attempt to gain for the miners such improved conditions as a 30-hour week, has had repercussions among mining unions in New Zealand. A request has been made, it is understood, to New Zealand miners to give an undertaking that, if the strike is declared, they will not permit coal hewn in the Dominion to be sent to Australia. Should the threat of a strike be fulfilled, it is considered likely that, to relieve a shortage of coal —particularly as fuel for rail and sea transport—purchasing agencies in Ai. tralia may attempt to import coal.. New Zealand is by far the nearest coal-producing country to Australia, and actually is considered the only economically feasible source of supply for it, if outside coal is needed. New Zealand delegates have been invited to, and will attend, a conference of mining unionists in Australia early next month, and this request that no imnortations should be allowed from New Zealand during a strike will be discussed then. It is possible, too, that New Zealand miners may follow an industrial habit from the past and by a wages levy assist the strikers financially. The possession of a big fighting fund, built up over a long period of years by the Australian miners themselves, has been mentioned in the cabled messages discussing the possibility of a strike. Former mining strikes in Australian States have been financed by contributions from miners in other states, but the strike threatened for the coming spring is planned to be nation-wide, and if it is called every member of an Australian mining union will be idle.