THE Inangahua Times. THURSDAY, AUG 21, 1913. THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

Inangahua Times, 21 August 1913, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. THURSDAY, AUG 21, 1913. THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

" A contemporary says the cause of She trouble at Blackball, which has been brewing for some has arisen over the working of the niaht shift fcr development purposes, which the Union claims can be very well abolished by the management. One of the s'rongest arguments which the Union puis forward for ihe abolition of this" 1 ' dog-watch" (which iasts from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m, with three-quatte sof an honr off for meals, and includes "walking lime" to and from work) is that the men on duty do not get _ cnoiuh sleep. The Union representatives have pointed out th - 3t some miners live in boarding houses and rhat it is impose sible for the men on night duty to fet adequate rest in the day- ' time, because of noise, interrupt h tions, etc, which wake them up. I Consequently, a man cannot do a « faimieht's work. Speaking to a representative of " The Pre-s '' u- a £entierren who is wellacquaintII ed with mining com i ions on the West Coast, Sdid that \vi h regard to she third, or r.i.h'-shift, he thoutihi it would be impossible to do without it, for on it the work of development of a mine des pended. .At the Blackball mine, whereabout 300 mm were em* ployed, only twelve men were actually on duty on the nightshift. men wre chosen for nigh; duty every weeks, and consequently each <-ang of twelve sot one week on the morning mitt, and one week on the af:ernoon shift, and one week on the night shift. The third shilt was absolutely necessary to carry on the work of opening up places where the main body of the miners could work when >hey had got out the coal available in their present positions. In making these drives down on to fresh areas of coal, only a few men had space to work in at a time,.and conse* quently, this work had to be kept going well ahead, so that the main body of miners would have plenty of work in view, and would not be laid idle. It was useless to put moie men on making these arives. or making more drive - , wnh the idea of preventing tie nccess ty for the night shift, because from the conditions under which the mine was worked, such a course would net result in opening up any larger area of cal The night L shift was occuoied in the work of development ohead of the current woik, and if the third shilt re'useJ to work, it would mean that the < utput of the mine would be 1 educed, and less hands could be employed: in'taei, the development would naturally be j reduced by onesthird, and in the course of three months, the man-j agement would be without wor<* j • ingplaces for all the men, audi

output that the trade jequred The outnut, whi- h vtas oritinaily ' about 400 tons a nay, had now g.ownio about 850 tons a dcy, so it would De clear that it was of vital impOiianc;.- to keep plenty of new coal ii> si.i;ht The bigger the output, the.moit fu;ure working places wire required, so that it was plain thai the doing away with the nn>ht shift, would great;y retard development. Ti.ere weie preparations to. mike lor bi*r ordeistofill for the next six or eight months, and the night shif would be wanted particularly Apparently the Federation ot Labour, to which the miners unions were affiliated, had made up its mind to abolish the night shift, and the trouble at Black--1 ball was one of the moves in the 'game. Some eighteen months i ago, the manager of the Blackball ! mine had mentioned that provided he could get the development work well ahead, he thought he could temporarily cease the night work. Unfortunately, the new area that had been opened up had been rendered useless by water gtttmg in the drive, and/ all had to be commenced do novo I and as matters now stood, the j "third shift "was a necessity.