French Miners

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 303, 20 December 1922, Page 11

French Miners

Tlie French National Federation &t miners has replied to a statement by the enapjoyers that the eight-hour day has had .a deplorable effect on tijy production of coal and the economic life of the country by issuing the results of an inquiry- into the coaj <n.fiuslry. This points out that Uie mines- are fc-anrip-sred by bureaucratic pud chaotic management, producing: Deficient and defective state of il\e rolling stock ?jelong : -ng to the mines; Inadequate storage accommodation for pit props and the great inaccessibility of the yards; out-of-date iraplena ok ts;. J3a.d application of labour; inadequale. ma'sntenance of the mines; bad organisation of the lighting; In-

sufficient preparatory work; Chaotic

manner of employing labour and the -inadequate organisation or foreign labour; the area (exploited is toe largo >.n proportion to the available plant.

The report, also poinlp out that the profits niad« by tlio mine owners are greatly in excess of those rcal-scd in the years preceding 1913. The wages of the miners no longer conform to the actual cost of living. Reductions of wages verying from 2t> per cent, to 50 per cent, had be?n imposed"in certain districts. The employers would never think of reducing their generous scale .of expenses by remedying the faults .which are always being pointed , out and which are cited above;- -tli<ey would never think of reducing the'r huge, profits or their extravagant expenditure. "Wages should and could be readjusted iJi all the c mines to meet the cost of living, without thi:- measure of ju&tice influencing the volume of production m any way whatever." The miners are resolved to defend their rights against all unjust attacks.