N.S.W. Miners Promise to Produce More

Grey River Argus, 17 April 1948, Page 2

N.S.W. Miners Promise to Produce More

SYDNEY, April 16 The Joint Coal Board has agreed to shelve part of its anti-strike plans in return for promise made by the Miners’ Federation to eliminate petty stoppages and speed up production. The bpard will virtually shelve the proposal to tighten up the qualifications for miners’ holidays in New South Wales and will withhold its plan to prohibit pit-top meetings in working hours. , In return the union wil Itry to get rank and file approval of its own plans for the elimination of petty stoppages and will withdraw its threat of a large-scale protest strike against the board’s proposed action, British Coal Production Up LONDON, April 16. Figures showing the recovery achieved by the British coal industry since last year’s fuel crisis were quoted by the' Minister of Fuel and Power (Mr Hugh Gaitskell), in the House of Commons.

During twenty-two weeks of the present cbal winter, production had been 88,400,000 tons, compared with 81,600,000 tons during the corresponding period of 1947. This was an increase of 86 per cent. The addition of half an hour to the length of each shift had resulted in a production increase of 12 per cent, in 150 collieries, while the introduction of Saturday work at 700 collieries had caused an increase of 5 per cent.

Mr Gaitskell said that at the end of March the country’s coal stocks were 13,500,000 tons. This meant that the oial board could plan for a greatly increased level of exports. It was now possible to budget for a coal export target of between 15,000,000 and 16,000,000 tons this year. If this could be achieved it would add between £30,000,000 and £40,000,000 to Britian’s sterling credits.

Communist Defeat in Trades Council

AUCKLAND, April 16

All the known members of the Communist Party who were candidates for the Auckland Trades Council annual election last night were defeated.

The entire pro-Communist ticket was rejected with one exceptionone of the executive seats for which neither party ran a full ticket. The largest anti-Communist majority in straight-forward contests was 34 out of the 190 votes cast,' indicating that a full muster of antiCommunist delegates will have to be maintained at the monthly meetings throughout the year to ensure majority support for the executive. All of the new executive were candidates on the anti-Communist ticket, except Mr Kelleher, .the Auckland president of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, who is not a Communist—he is a member of the Labour Party. Both factions were obliged to vote for one candidate on the opposing ticket because each ticket contained only six names for seven council seats.