Wages the Crux

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 86, 27 March 1926, Page 5

Wages the Crux

BRITISH COAL PROBLEM. CARTEL SCHEME OUTLINED. London, March 26. The owners’ and miners’ meetings yesterday were secret, but Air. A. G. Cook, the miners’ secretary, made a statement that the delegate conference would not bp called until tho owners formulate a wage proposat. There are indications that a substantial majority on both sides are willing to accept the report. Everything depends on the wage issue. Meantime the “Daily Express' ” political correspondent outlines n striking idea, which might render the recommendations acceptable. The details ar© still nebulous, but it is understood the Miners’ Federation and the Coal Owners’ Association have reached a line of agreement for the future of the industry, whereunder a proposed cartel will be established, similar to those in France and Germany, tlie miners abandoning the demand for nationalisation, while the employers will accept a modified measure of working control in the form of pit district committees. The effect of the cartel will be to weld the industry into a homogeneous whole. It would involve a drastic regrouping of pits, the establishment of a central selling agency, possibly municipal trading in coal', and the elimination of the worst evils of the system, the middlemen. The cartel will also seek a .European agreement on wages and hours. Miners will have a say in housing, baths and welfare schemes.—(A. and N.Z.)