BLACKBALL MINE THROWN IDLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 49, 27 February 1908, Page 8

BLACKBALL MINE THROWN IDLE.

SEVEN MEN DISMISSED.

THE OTHERS CEASE WORK. [BY TEIEGBAttI. — MtESS ASSOCIATION.] GREYMOUTH, This Day. Soren mmo v = we- re dismissed from the Blackball mine las>t night, and to-day nil the men refused to gr^ to ffork, and tho mino is idle. No further particulars arc available at presont. The foregoing telegram was shown to Mr. Geo. G. Stead, chairman of directors of tho Blackball Company, who is passing through Wellington on his way to Napier, wohere ho is to attend a conference of the directors of the N«w Zealand Press Association. In reply to a question as to tho cause of tho trouble, Mr. Stead said that in consequence, of recent alterations in the working conditions of the mine necessitated by the "bank-to-bank" ciauso, tho Blackball Company found it necessary to reduce the number of men employed by eight. All the other men in the mine then struck, insisting on the company retaining tho minero whoso services had been dispensed with. Tho mine is now idle ANOTHER STATEMENT. Mr. Lightfoot, acting secretary to tie Trades Council n*- Wellington, states that he has received a telegram from tho secretary of the Miner*' Uoion alleging that the men were di?charged without reason. Ho further alleges that tho action taken by the company is due to the fact that the men discharged had taken a prominent part £n uniou matters. As the company refused to reinstate tho men the other members of the union refused to work.