MILLIONS LOST

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 267, 5 August 1920, Page 5

MILLIONS LOST

EFFECT OF BARRIER STRIKE £17,000,000 IN OUTPUT AND i WAGES ■ It is estimated that ovor X 10,000,000 has been directly lost to Australia as a result of the Broken Hill strike, and that about 25,000 men have lost their employment in consequence o£ the strike. Of this total 7500 were employed directly in the mines and the others ill the railways and allied and incidental industries. It is also estimated that the employees directly und indirectly affected by the strike have loci, in wages ,£7,500,001 during the same period. Privation and misery have been brought to a thriving city of 30,000 inhabitants, who aro solely uependent on the mining industry of Broken Hill (says tho "Morning Herald"). Hardship has also been intlicted on 70,000 people, who are directly and indirectly dependent on'*he industry. Not only have th 6 Broken Hill industries suffered, but the smolting works i at Port Pine have been swiously arI fceted. The production of lead at the Port Pirio works prior \d tho strike was estimated at l'lfl,ooo tons per cnnnra; silver, 8,000,00007,. per annum; and zinc concentrates, 10,000 totrn. Over 168,000 tons of coal are consumed in tho course of a, year at Broken Hill when the \vork9 aro in operation, and over 14,000,000 superficial feet of timber, the greater portion of which is Australian hardwood, is also used. The South Australian revenue has been seriously effected as the result ol' tho loss of revenue from the railway traflio from Broken Hill. The output from tn« Cockle Creek smelting works and the zinc works at Risdon, Tasmania, has beea reduced in consequence of the Srouble. Without the emelters at Port Pirie to convert the concentrated produced at the mines into market metal thero would have teen, no work at Broken Hill during the war. Concentrates were then unsaleable. The strike started 15 months ago in consequence of an inter-union quarrel between the Amalgamated Miners and the Federated Engine-drivers and Firemen's Union. With this quarrel tho omployors had nothing whatever to do. When, however, it was adjusted, and before the strikers had resumed, the A.M.A. declared that its members Tould not go back to work until they were conceded, amongst other things, it a day minimum, a six-hour day, iv fiveday week, tho abolition of the contract system, and the abolition of the night shift. It -pas recently stated in London that during the first ten years of developmental work on the Barrier the companies spent .£1.000,000 in wages without receiving any dividend. The companies declare that under tho conditions now demanded by the men the mines can he worked only at a loss.