AUSTRALIAN MINERS

Evening Star, Issue 23497, 10 February 1940, Page 12

AUSTRALIAN MINERS

THE THREATENED STRIKE OWNERS DETERMINED TO FIGHT Press Association—By Telegraph—Coypright SYDNEY, February 9r Thc Prime Minister, Mr R. G. Mensdes, commenting on the likelihood of a coal mining strike, declared to-day that if the coal mining unions perpetrated the folly of a widespread strike the issue facing the people would be whether they were on the side of a legally-constituted tribunal or oh the side of lawlessness. He had no doubt where the people stood and what their answer would be. A representative of the colliery proprietors declared that their patience was exhausted. He added, “ There can bo no further concessions. The Arbitration Court, to which we are bound and whose decisions we respect, recently gave tho miners many benefits and imposed additional burdens on coal proprietors. We cannot be coerced by the employees. We shall fight to a finish.” Official records before the Arbitration Court disclose that the average earnings of Australian miners are £8 to £9 a wedk, compared with £2 11s 6d earned by British miners.