Mine Disputes

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25553, 22 July 1948, Page 4

Mine Disputes

The pleasure and satisfaction of the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagan) with the agreement of the Runanga miners to accept the Minister’s offer of a tribunal to settle their strike, is perhaps understandable. since the strike has caused him a great deal of unnecessary trouble and anxiety. His satisfaction that the men are at last going back to work will be shared by most people, but it is not easy to feel complacent over a strike that meant the loss of 22 working days and 18,000 tons of coal; nor is it easy to see what compensation the miners themselves will gain from the inquiry commensurate with the loss of £28,000 in wages over three weeks, particularly when they could have agreed much earlier in the dispute to the course they are now following. It seems fairly obvious that the miners decided to accept the Minister’s offer only when they could not gain the support of other miners’ unions for their strike. The tribunal formula for the settlement of such disputes seems to have become normal

in all disputes with unions that, do not operate under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. In this instance the union has been permitted to nominate its own chairman; and it has chosen Mr A. A. McLachlan, S.M. This means that a busy Magistrate will be seconded from his normal duties at a time when the shortage of Magistrates is notorious. It seems to be high time for an overhaul of the procedure for settling disputes in which miners and watersiders are concerned. The present dispute has wasted a good deal of the Minister’s own time —time which he can ill spare from his other duties. State mines, in spite of the Minister’s disclaimer, seem to be no more immune from industrial disputes than privatelyowned mipes. The Government should think it worth while to consider whether, in State mines, it cannot adopt a system of engaging labour which would put an end to this periodical and wasteful bickering with its employees. There are no strikes in co-operative mines and no stoppages that are not caused by mechanical and similar difficulties. It should be possible to devise means whereby the mines could be leased to co-operative parties. The Government could protect its large financial interest in the mines and could lease them under such conditions as to ensure against their ex-

ploitation by wasteful practices. The suggestion is not new; but there is no reason why it should not be revived. Only by some such measure could the continual industrial disputes that have caused such waste of time, money, and material be brought to an end. It should not be beyond the wit of the Government and the miners in consultation to evolve a satisfactory plan of this nature.