THE MEN TO BLAME

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 84, 6 October 1942, Page 4

THE MEN TO BLAME

PUKEMIRO DISPUTE

DECISION OF COMMITTEE

(P.A.)

AUCKLAND, October 5,

A decision against the men has been given by the national disputes committee which has been inquiring into the Pukemiro mine dispute which led to the recent strike in the Waikato field.

A report on the committee's findings, signed by the chairman, Mr. John Dowgray, and issued in Auckland, states that the decision of the committee is that, if the miners in the Taupiri section during the pay period ended August 28 had not deliberately reduced their production as compared with the previous pay period and the average of places during the previous quarter, some of them would have had an unanswerable claim for, the minimum wage in the event of their earnings being less than that minimum, but by their own action they forfeited their right under the agreement, since they did not try to earn what they could have earned, and therefore the manager of the mine was justified in his refusal to make up the earnings. The decision of the committee was unanimous.

The disputes committee consisted of Messrs. A. Prendiville, acting national president, Mr. J. Devlin, acting national secretary,. and Mr. F. Crook, member of the National Council of the United Mine Workers of New Zealand, representing the men, and Messrs. C. C. Davis, chairman, T. O. Bishop, secretary, and F. Carson, member of the National Committee of the Coal Owners' Association, with Mr. Dowgray as chairman.

In the course of a lengthy report the committee states that the evidence of the tonnage produced, together with the admissions of witnesses for the union, established beyond doubt that, upon the termination of the arrangement under which the miners did their own trucking, the miners in the disputed places did deliberately reduce their daily output of coal. The reduction was applied simultaneously in, all places and production thereafter was uniform at an average of approximately 3.6 tons each man shift, or 7.2 tons a pair. "Coming to the results of our examination of the workings," adds the report, "we are of the opinion that two of the eight places which we saw were, when we saw them, places in which it woulct be difficult even for a good miner to earn the minimum wage of 25s 4d a day by tonnage rates alone and without an allowance. Some other places were about the border line, and two only could be classed as really good places from the point of view of coal getting. In reaching this conclusion the members of the committee made due allowance for the fact that only one pair of miners in all the places inspected had been working their place to the best advantage."