MINERS RETURNING

Evening Star, Issue 23340, 9 August 1939, Page 15

MINERS RETURNING

DISPUTE OVER DISMISSAL [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, August 8. After two days of idleness, 400 men employed at the .Macdonald and Glen Afton mines, operated near Huntly by the Glen Afton Collieries Ltd., will return to work to-morrow. As the result of the dismissal by the management of an aged employee, activities at the mines ceased following a stop-work meeting on Monday morning, the miners disagreeing with the employers’ view that the man concerned, who was aged 76, was no longer capable of carrying out his duties efficiently. The question was discussed for three hours at a meeting of the Glen Afton branch of the Northern Miners’ Union this morning, when members of the union executive addressed the assembled workers. It was decided that work should be resumed to-morrow, pending the carrying out of negotiations concerning the dispute. For the majority of the 400 men who were involved in the stoppage work will not be resumed until 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, and following the meeting to-day the bulk of them returned to their homes. About a dozen, however, will start at midnight on what is known as the “ dog watch ” of eight hours for the purpose of attending the mine pumps. It is assumed that the miners themselves are satisfied to leave the question of the aged employee’s dismissal to the executive of the union. A committee is in existence to deal with matters of this kind, and it is understood that negotiations will be conducted by this means.