AMERICAN COAL MINERS’ PROTEST STRIKE

Evening Star, Issue 26136, 25 June 1947, Page 5

AMERICAN COAL MINERS’ PROTEST STRIKE

(Rec. 1 p.m.). NEW YORK, June 24. Amid protests of “ Let the Senators mine the coal,” soft coal miners by the thousands left the coal pits to-day in a walk-out protesting against the final passage of the Taft-Hartley. Labour Bill. Field reports indicated that about 155.000, or nearly 40 per cent, of the nation’s bituminous miners, were, on strike, closing several hundreds of mines in eight States.. Big,steel firms in the Pittsburgh area were hard hit, some getting only 25 per cent, of their normal coal production.. ‘ . The Coal Mines Administrator, Mr N. H. Collisson, said at Washington that it would be futile for the Government to try to stop the present-.walk-out. He said that the miners’ official 10-day vacation begins on June. 27. Furthermore, the Government’s authority to operate coal mines expires on <1 une 30.

It is believed that the miners will not resume work when the vacation ends Ort July 1, because the coal operators and Mr John L. Lewis failed, to reach an agreement on a new contract. Negotiations broke' down several weeks ago, and the miners’ Contract with the Government ends on June 30. In Detroit, Mr Robert Keys, president of the independent Foremen's Association, said that; despite ‘the new labour law, the five weeks’ strike of 3,800 Ford Motor Company foremen would continue. . In New York a union official said that 40,000 Bethlehem shipyard workers would not report for Work in four East Coast ports on July 1. " . . In Washington, Representative Smith (Democrat), Virginia, co-author of the Smith-Corinally War Labour Disputes Act, proposed in the House that the provisions empowering the Government to seize plants be extended for another year. Mr Smith said this would be & precaution against a national disaster if a crippling coal strike ensued, and there was some doubt whether the Taft-Hartley Act covered such a situation.