COAL CRISIS

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 July 1925, Page 5

COAL CRISIS

MEDIATION FAILS

INTERNATIONAL STRUGGLE

A LEADER’S THREAT,

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT, LONDON, July 11. The efforts of Mr. W. C. Bridgeman, who was Secretary for Mines 1920-22, to bring the coal owners and miners together again failed. The miners told him that they were not prepared to confer unless the owners withdrew the notice terminating the national agreements and also their new proposals. Mr. Bridgeman sounded the owners, who declined to withdraw the notice, but were agreeable to resume negotiations at the point where they were left off. The Miners’ Federation finally intimated that as their reasonable request had been refused they would not agree to a conference.

It js generally believed that the next step will be a national inquiry into the condition of the industry. The Daily Herald states that after the conference with Mr. Bridgeman the miners’ executive laid the men’s case before the general council of the Trades Union Congress, which lengthily deliberated. The Herald understands that the council resolved to appeal to the whole movement to support the miners. The general council of the Trade Union Congress, after meeting the executive of the Miners’ Federation, issued a manifesto endorsing the latter’s refusal to meet the coal owners until the latter’s proposals were withdrawn, and undertaking to co-operate whole-heartedly with the miners in their resistance to what wa s termed the degradation of the standard of life. A committee wa s appointed to maintain continuous contact with the negotiations now proceeding, with power to summon the general council if necessary. Mr. Cook (the miners’ secretary), amid cheers, took off his coat when he addressed a meeting at Sunderland. He said hi s contention was that so long as a penny was going in mining royalties they were not budging from their demands. If a struggle occurred it would be an international struggle. “Don’t let us destroy the pits; they may be ours before long,” he concluded. Mr. Cook added that the unions had drawn up an alliance, and there would I>© an executive conference on the 17th inst., representing three and a Half million workers. The French and Belgian miners had decided to strike to resist a wage reduction. All were going to strike together in the event of nonsettlement, and they were also cabling America.