THE COAL MINERS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1931, Page 10

THE COAL MINERS

OWNERS' CRITICISM

ATTITUDE TO AGREEMENTS

UNTENABLE POSITION

The unsatisfactory position as regards industrial agreements with the Coal Miucrs' Union was stressed to-day by Colonel AY. D. Holgatc, when lie delivered his presidential address to tht annual meeting of the New Zealand Coal Mino Owucrs' Association.

"The position as regards industrial agreements with the coal miners' unions is most unsatisfactory," he said. "On tho expiration of the agreements ia 1930 conferences were held in May and June of that year, as had been customary in the past, and at those conferences an agreement in all cases was arrived at, but when tho agreement* were prepared and forwarded for signature none of them was signed, with, the exception of one with the AVaikato coal miners' unions. Even this agreement was repudiated by them at the instigation of the West Coast Unions by the miners refusing to work back Saturdays; which had always been done ia the past.

"The position created by the attitude of the miners' unions was one unprecedented in the history of coal mining in New Zealand as regards agreements. Tho result was that thero was no other alternative than to work under tho former agreements, which were all registered under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act. The unions' attitude is one inconceivable considering thu present unsatisfactory condition of the industry, and the thousands of men out of work caused through the unusual present financial depression, not only in New Zealand but in every other country. The position is exaggerated, especially when one considers that tho agreements arrived at at the conferences in 1930 were practically tho same as those made in 1928. Had there been any attempt to reduce earnings generally, they might have had some grounds for the attitude they have taken up.

"One naturally expects when them is so much unemployment and when reductions in salaries and wages are universally made in order to meet the existing conditions, that the miner* who have more or less constant employment would be more amenable to reason, and to fall in with the general economic position, instead of which, 1 regret to say that their attitude is to the contrary, more particularly on th» West Coast" REACTS ON THEMSELVES. The effect of the action of the coal miners' unions' organisation on the industry in general was stressed by Colonel Holgate. "The industry generally," he said, "has been .seriously affected by the action of the coal mine unions' organisation. The Government at enormous cost introduced hydro-electrical power, because they could not rely on the miners of this country giving a constant supply of coal to produce a constant supply of electricity. Statements to that effect were made in several New Zealand papers when hydro-electrical power was first discussed here.

"The result is that hydro-electrical power has cost the country over £5,000,000 up to 1930 for generating stations alone, where, on the other hand, had electricity been generated from coal the capital outlay required would not have been more than £1,000,000, requiring an additional output of coal of about 1,000,000 tons per year to give the necessary power. This would have meant an additional employment of about 3750 men to produce the extra output of coal, to say nothing of the extra men needed to run a steam plant compared with the number required to run hydro-electrical stations. The electricity could have been, supplied as cheaply, if not more cheaply, than at present. The above is sufficient to show the influence of labour alone on an undertaking of this kind, which not only affects the industry, but reacts on the miners themselves;"•"'...