AUSTRALIAN MINERS.

Evening Star, Issue 23322, 19 July 1939, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN MINERS.

The one-day strike of the Australian coal miners on Monday is reported to have been staged as a protest against the national register. It had nothing to do with the new award, which becomes operative in Queensland this week and in New South Wales on August 16. For a time the alleged deficiencies of this award bade fair to cause a general strike, the provision in it responsible for most of the unrest being that providing crib time for surface workers. This was previously taken within the limits of the eighthour “ bank to bank ” day, but will How bo taken in the men’s own time. As fuller knowledge of the award spread rank-and-file miners contended that it endangered the seniority rights, which they would never be prepared to surrender, gave the owners a free hand with customs and conditions in the industry, and might have the ultimate result of reducing rates fixed in mechanised mines. An interesting point in the dispute as a whole is that the award represents the first attempt by the Commonwealth Arbitration Court to regulate working conditions in the industry. In the past the minors have favoured the system of negotiating their own agreements with the owners rather than submit to the judgment of an outside tribunal. A two years’ agreement, expiring next month, was concluded in 1937, and when the Miners’ Federation served a new log of claims last year the Industrial Commission, which had previously ratified the agreement, ruled that until it expired the claims could not bo pressed.

When the owners naturally held to this ruling the federation launched a nation-wide stoppage which threw 23,000 men out of work and adversely affected other industries. When a settlement was finally achieved it included the reference of the pensions and special compensation questions to a tribunal, and the new award had an important bearing on it. The award does not greatly vary existing conditions in the industry, but the miners have secured a gain in the provisions for annual holidays. Actually, there seems no very good reason why they should, be dissatisfied. Even their former demand for a thirty-hour week, which must be regarded as drastic, was not rejected, but was referred to the Full Court for consideration. And, since the federation agreed to arbitration, any resistance to the decisions before the effect of them was felt would be illogical. Already stoppages have occurred in some mines in protest against the award, but it had to be remembered that many of the claims were obviously impracticable in view of the conditions ruling in the industry. The heavy operating costs sustained by the principal collieries indicated not merely that costs could not lightly be increased, but also that further rationalisation was needed to secure efficient running of the industry. The call now is for genuine co-operation between the owners and tho minors, and to this end a useful method of procedure will be provided by the new Board of Reference of the Court. Happily tho miners appear to have realised that, in the circumstances, direct action is inadmissible, and are disposed to fall in line with the award. Any further disputes could quite well be settled on the lines of arbitration. An impartial inquiry by the proper constitutional machinery certainly furnishes the best way out.