UNEMPLOYMENT LEVY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 231, 26 June 1931, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT LEVY

Miners’ & Seamen’s Attitude BALLOT TO BE TAKEN By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, June 25. It is reported that all miners’ and seamen’s unions in the Dominion will within the next few days take a secret ballot on the question of the payment of any future unemployment levy. On Tuesday a ballot taken among the members of the West Coast Miners’ Union resulted in a decision not to pay further instalments of the levy by a majority of 219 votes to 111. The men stated as a reason for their decision that they did not receive as much relief as they had done through charitable aid and local bodies before the introduction of the scheme. It is not known whether the employers of miners on the West Coast intend ro pay the workers’ levies, it being understood they are waiting to learn the Government’s attitude. The only development in the dispute between the union miners at Blackball and the small party of co-operative miners working on the Blackball Coal Company’s freehold is that attempts have been made to dissuade the seven Nelson Creek men who recently joined the party from continuing to work with it. To-day an official of the West Coast Timber Workers’ Union visited the party, and advised the seven new men to cease operations. The men continue to work with the co-operative party, however, and the work of getting the mine ready for the production of coal proceeds undisturbed. At Blackball the police are being kept at full strength.