MINERS' GRIEVANCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1194, 1 August 1911, Page 5

MINERS' GRIEVANCES.

NATIONAL STRIKE THREATENED. By Tclccraph—Press Association-Copyrieht London, July 30. The British Miners' Federation has decided to ask tho owners to consider the payment of a district minimum wage for working in abnormal places, otherwise an immediate ballot will to taken as to whether thero shall be a strike. A 'LONG-STANDING TROUBLE. Tho rates of pay for working in "abnormal places" in mines havo been tho subject of a long-standing agitation. Tho phrase relates to working places where, the coal-getting is rendered difficult and unprofitable by reason mainly of the large proportion of refuso that has to be cleared away. Where men are paid at the rato of so much per ton of coal every hour taken up with clearing refuse is, from tho point of viow of wages, an hour wasted. For this reason special pricelists are struck for working such places, and the .adjustment of price to place has frequently proved a stumbling-block to harmonious working. The question formed one of tho points in dispute when the Conciliation Board agreement was being drafted in South Wales in March, 1910, and so diverse were tho views of tho dpposing parties that it was agreed to leave the matter in abeyance and exclude it from the provisions of tho agreement. The friction concerning tho price-list for working tho Buto scam in some of the Rhondda Valley pits—alleged by the Ely men to bo abnormal—followed soon after and led to. the still unsettled strike of the 12,000 men of the Cambrian Combine.