STOCKTON MINE STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26032, 8 February 1950, Page 3

STOCKTON MINE STRIKE

WORST IN DISTRICT FOR 20 YEARS

NO SUPPORT FROM OTHER AREAS From Our Own Reporter WESTPORT, February 7. A decision not to support the Stockton miners in their strike was made by the Denniston miners at their monthly stop-work meeting this morning. The discussion about the dispute was so prolonged that by the time the meeting was finished it was considered too late to start work for the day. It is understood that there is every likelihood of the Millerton and Charming Creek miners adopting the same attitude. If so, the dispute will still be confined to the Stockton area, as it has been since work ceased a fortnight ago. It is understood that the Buller central miners’ committee, at a meeting at the Week-end, declined to support the strike. The strike has developed into one of the biggest in the mine’s history, and the worst in the Buller district for more than 20 years. It has caused the loss of 13,500 tons of coal so far. The 360 men employed in the mine have lost 11 days’ work and more than £lO,OOO in wages. The union wants an additional pair of miners employed at the. coal face. The management claims there is no room for more hewers at present, but has offered to give the men places’ at the face in another mine. The miners went on strike, claiming that extra hewers were necessary in the interests of greater production._ The strike coincides with the start of the £550,000 project to increase production from the Stockton mine by building an aerial ropeway to speed up the transport of coal over rough country to the distributing point at the railroad.