COAL BOARD REFUSES CONCESSIONS TO BRITISH MINERS

Grey River Argus, 18 February 1949, Page 5

COAL BOARD REFUSES CONCESSIONS TO BRITISH MINERS

(Rec. 10. U). LONDON, February 17. The Labour correspondent of the Times say.; that the National Coal Board has informed the National Union of Mine Workers that it has refused to adnjit any liability under the war-time cost of living bonus, beyond the thirty-two pence per shift which is now being paid.

A claim for the concession of free or cheap coal to the miners of Cumberland and of Lancashire has also been rejected. It is proposed, however, to take the matter of free coal to arbitration.

The Labour correspondent added: “It is clear that the National Coal Board is not inclined to make any further costly concessions to the coal miners, until they can be justified by an increase in coal production. A claim for two weeks’ holiday pay has recently been rejected”.

£l2 000 Claim Against English Miners by Coal Board (Rec. 10.5). LONDON, February 17. Miners at the Whitburn colliery, in South Shields, are calling a mass meeting for Sunday to discuss a claim for twelve thousand pounds sterling, which, they believe, the National Coal Board is going to make against them for the coal that was lost through their sixteen-day strike from January 13,' says the Daily Telegraph. It has been estimated that twentyfive thousand tons of coal was lost through this strike, and an official of the miners said that the National Coal Hoard has informed the miners that a claim of £ll 13s per man would probably be made. The claim would affect all of the workers over the age of eighteen years of fourteen hundred workers involved in the strike. The miners are going to ask for the Board’s claim to be waived.