MINERS' HOLIDAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 147, 19 December 1944, Page 5

MINERS' HOLIDAYS

I AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE (Special P.A. Correspondent.} | SYDNEY, December 18. On the eve ot the vital all-unions' coal conference, seven of the New South Wales mines are idle today over one of the main Issues in the dispute between the millers and the Governjment. This is the garnishing of wages for non-payment of fines for absentee* j ism. The coal loss today on the garj nishing issue is 7800 tons. This heavy loss is expected to influence the delegates to this week's coal conference to press fox* acceptance by the miners of the ten-day Christmas iholdays break instead of the 16 days : sanctioned by the Miners' Federation. The Government will be represented lat the coal talks 3 by the Acting Prime Minister, Mr. F. M. Forde, the Attor-ney-General, Dr. H. V. Evatt, the Minister of Supply, Mr. J. A. Beasley,' and the Minister of Labour,; Mr. E. J. I Holloway. and the presidents and secre[taries of all the Federal unions will ! attend. An important voice in the discussions will be that of Mr. Rowley James,; M.H.R., liaison officer between the Government and the miners, who strongly opposes any reduction in the coal out> put, particularly in view of the requirements of the newly-sstablished British Pacific Fleet, The Central Coal Authority, Mr. A. C. Willis, has advocated trial by tribunal of malcontents who are sabotaging coal production. A large proportion, of the coal disputes, he said, were caused by an irresponsible minority among the mine workers. Only one-sixth of the stoppages at the New South Wales mines in the past six months were due directly to industrial disputes involving awards and agreements. In the .remainder more coal was lost through domestic disputes th.ah for any other single reason. *■ If the miners can foe persuaded to co-operate with the Government to increase the coal output, a Royal Commission may be set up to investigate the problems peculiar to the mining industry. '