MINERS' WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 124, 21 November 1935, Page 10

MINERS' WAGES

CLAIM TO BE PRESSED RESULT OF BRITISH BALLOT REQUEST TO MB. BALDWIN (British Official . Wireless ami Vuited I'icss Association.) (Received November 21, 2 p.m.) LONDON, November 20. By 409,351 voles to 29,215 in a national ballot, members of the Mine Workers' Federation have authorised the executive committee lo press the claim for an advance of wages of 2s per shift for adults and Is per shift for youths, even lo the extent of tendering their notice. This is die biggest majority in any national ballot in the history of the union.

The result was announced after a meeting of the executive at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, and the statement added that the result was being communicated to the Prime Minister with a request that he should interview the executive committee.

Officials have been empowered to convene a national conference of the union, when it will be necessary either to consider the outcome of the negotiations now beginning or to confirm the putting into effect of the result of the coalfields ballot. The situation is very difficult, but the opinion is expressed by newspapers that as nobody wants a strike some way out may be found. COAL OWNERS' DETERMINATION. "The coal-mine owners are determined to do all they can to raise the price of coal so as to make it possible for miners to get a higher standard of living," said Mr. C. G. Jones, chairman of the South Wales Coal Owners' Association. The Lord Mayor of Cardiff said that whether it was a mere threat or a strike or lock-out the owners and the men would have to get together eventually, and he appealed to them to settle their differences now.

Mr. Joseph Jones, president of the Mine' Workers' Federation, said that the election successes in the mining districts show the public sympathy. "The miners' approach to the Prime Minister means that we are anxious to avert a winter stoppage," he said. "We do not intend to have procrastination until 1936."