MILLERTON MINERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 November 1944, Page 4

MILLERTON MINERS

DISPUTE UNSETTLED. WESTPORT, November 3. No settlement has been reached in the miners’ strike which followed a stop-work meeting of Millerton miners on Thursday. An official of the Westport Coal Company, Ltd., said yesterday that the dispute arose after the refusal of the coal mines to grant permission to a man in the Stockton mine to buy coal for domestic use from the Millerton mine, where his son was employed. The man was employed at the Stockton Mine. He was head of the house, and consequently entitled to buy coal at miners’ rates from the Stockton mine. His son working in the Millerton mine was not entitled to buy coal for home use. Owing to the alleged inferior quality, the man wanted Millerton coal and considered he was entitled to it because his son worked in the pit. The coal mines at a meeting recently had refused an application by the man for Millerton coal, the official said. The president of the Millerton Miners’ Union advised the management to-day that no further work would be carried out in the mine until the man’s request was acceded to. It is estimated that 800 tons of coal have already been lost through the strike, the average output being 400 tons a day.