MINERS AND THE PUBLIC

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 247, 6 July 1918, Page 6

MINERS AND THE PUBLIC

e L\ some respects the negotiations .1 now in progress between the coal f mine owners of the Dominion and - their employees arc at an indctcrt minate stage, and therefore arc not, * open to comment. But one proposal 3 which has been laid before the - minors by the colliery owners is i manifestly entitled to serious couI sidcration from the point of view of 3 the great third party in this and i other industrial disputes—that is to f say, tins general miblic. Leaving t aside the merits of their demand for . more wages, the miners should have i very httlc difficulty in deciding to i accept the reasonable suggestion of .• ho employers ■ that they should - vork lull time, more especially as i they arc offered a special bonus in - consideration of doing so. The pro- ■ posal w set out in fu'l in a letter • Iran the colliery owners to tiie Min- . iSTBit of Mines, which appears in our 1- news columns to-day. Th- letter ' .will repay perusal, particularly by those members of tho public 'who ■ have had personal experience of the hardships incidental to a serious ■ coal shortage. The position in a nutshell is that the miners as a bodv arc offered by their employers an opportunity of increasing their present earnings by approximately ten pei' cent., plus a special bonus. All that they need do m order to secure these benefits is to work full time It is computed by the employers' that under existing conditions approximately ten per cent, of the available working time in coal mines is not worked by, mine employees. At its face value this statement distinctly I suggests that in.inors are not i'jsatisfied with their present rate of I remuneration, since it is open to them at any time, under current agreements, to increase their earnings on an'average by ten per cent Lik statement better deserves attention, however, in view of the vital necessity of maintaining supplies of coal for services bearing directly and indirectly upon the prosecution of the war, lor ordinary industrial ■ purposes, and for household uses To say the least, it is making no very onerous demand on the miners to ask that they should work in each week or fortnight for the reasonable period prescribed in industrial agreements. During this winter and to an extent in preceding winters a shortage of coal has subjected a \m-y large proportion of ' the people of the Dominion to serious inconvenience and discomfort .and difficulties have also been experienced in obtaining adequate, coal , supplies for essential ,public and ' municipal services. The people who , suffer most hardship under these 1 conditions are, of course, those who ' earn their livelihood by daily iabou,- ' in other occupations than coal mining and the dependants of workers so engaged. Tho miners, therefore, could devise no better way of for- | foiling every vestige of public sym- < palhy, and definitely antagonising ( flic whole community, than by re- | jecting the proposal 'now laid before them by flic colliery owners. Such ( action on their part would imply not ] only that they arc averse to better- , ing their own lot by doing a rea- {

sonable amount of work, but that they fire prepared to gravely injure iiiitiumil and lmporial interests and at the same time to inflict, upon'the comtnunily privations and hardships which will be felt most keenlyby workers and their families. The general public are directlv interested in the present negotiations between the colliery owners and the miners, and out of regard for their own vital interests should vigilantly follow the progress and outcome of these negotiations.