MINERS RESUME WORK

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25552, 21 July 1948, Page 4

MINERS RESUME WORK

CASE TO BE HEARD BY TRIBUNAL UNION ACCEPTS MR MCLAGAN’S OFFER From Our Own Reporter GREYMOUTH, July 20. The strike which has kept the Strongman and Liverpool State coal mines idle for the last 22 working days with a loss of 18,000 tons of coal and wages to the value of £28,000 has ended, the Strongman mine resuming on the back shift to-day and the Liverpool mine on the “dogwatch” this evening. This followed a hastily-called meeting at Runanga this morning when an offer made by the Minister of Mines (Mr A. McLagan) to set up a tribunal to consider the dispute was accepted. It is understood that the men made this decision by an overwhelming majority. Mr McLagan’s offer was not new. It was made early in the dispute. - The president of the State Miners’ Union (Mr G. E. English) said to-day that the Minister had repeated his offer to set up a tribunal this morning when the union officials spoke to him on the telephone. Mr McLagan also asked the union to nominate an independent chairman, and Mr English said that Mr A. A. McLachlan, S.M., had been nominated.

Expressing pleasure at the settlement of the dispute, Mr McLagan said that the dispute could have been settled on this basis when it began without the loss of a single day’s wages or a single ton of coal.