AUSTRALIAN COAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 156, 30 December 1944, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN COAL

! MINERS AND HOLIDAYS (Special P.A. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 28. I Most.of the New South Wales coal1 j miners are expected to obey the direc- ! tion of their federation and end their Christmas holidays on January 2. In the next week, however, it is likely that absenteeism will be heavy and xhe coal production much below nor- i anal. . . Even in ordinary circumstances, the production immediately following the Christmas holidays period is always well below the average. This year the situation has been complicated by conflicting directions from [the executive; of the Miners' Federaj tion. In the first place, the men were: instructed not to return to the pits till January 8, then at an all-union coal conference^delegates, including miners' | representatives, voted for a resumption on January 2. Immediately afterwards the Miners' Union executive repudiated this resolution. After a subsequent conference with the Federal Ministers and Australian Council of Trades Unions officials, the miners' executive ordered a return to work on January 2. .A warning that this action has averted the coal crisis only temporarily is given^today by the Labour Party's official organ the "Standard." Declaring that last, week's crisis will recur unless the whole of the coal industry faces up to realities, the paper says that coal must be won if the Labour Party is to live. Without coal no Government can carry on. : The "Standard" warns that the promised inquiry into the coal industry will be valueless if concerted action is not taken to control elements in the ; industry who, not wanting to work themselves, will not allow others to do so. '..■■• •■ . . •. "The one-day strike addict mast be I put down, because wartime industry I has no place for a fellow who makes it impossible for the other man to work," adds the paper. i