THE MINERS' STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9152, 6 September 1888, Page 3

THE MINERS' STRIKE.

MANIFESTO BY THE MEN. *' Manifesto of the Amalgamated Miners' Association of the Newcastle district of New South Wales:—To our fellow-workmen of Australasia and the general public: Fellow-workmen and citizens, —The miners of the Hunter River district, Newcastle, New South Wales, deeply regret that they have to appeal to you for your moral and pecuniary aid in a most unequal struggle. For years past the miners have upheld isolated strikes, and submitted patiently when locked out in a similar way. This has been an enormous strain upon the resources of the organisation, and an unbearable tax upon its members. It was foreseen that such a state of things must, sooner or later, culminate in a general strike such as has now taken place, unless averted by an agreement between the colliery proprietors and the miners for the settlement of disputes. ( After the miners of three collieries in the district had been locked out or on strike for some months, an attempt was made to obtain a general agreement of this kind. For this purpose a conference between the representatives of the proprietors and the workmen was agreed to, and held on the '21st of July last, at which the miners submitted a draft of the proposed agreement. After considerable discussion the miners were asked by the chairman of the associated proprietors, if they would meet the proprietors again at three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, a proposal to which the miners at once assented. But it would appear that this proposal had been made inadvertently by the chairman, because some of the proprietors dissented from it. After consultation among themselves the proprietors could only agree to place their agreement in the hands ,of the miners within a fortnight, and possibly meet them again in conference in a month. From that date no promise was made to meet the miners again to discuss and mutually draw up an agreement on any fixed date. This Wius pronounced against by the miners' representatives, but the conference was allowed to terminate without any understanding being come to as to when it would reassemble. Tins unwillingness to fix a date for discussing the proposals of their side for an agreement was regarded by the miners as an attempt to indefinitely defer a settlement of the disputes so long pending and arising out of the grievances which had become intolerable. These grievances are too numerous to permit of recapitulation here ; but the chief among them is the attempt of the proprietors to compel the men to work and throw back rubbish from among the coal fur nothing ; or, in other words, to do additional work without increase of pay. In several of the collieries bands of stone run through the coal seams, which have to be extricated and separated from the coal by the miner. For several years this work was paid for on the lines laid down in a mutual agreement which the masters themselves absurdly terminated, and refused to come to any fresh agreement, leaving the miners to obtain payment for this extra work as best they could. Arbitration has been refused by the masters, a general agreement indefinitely deferred, and repeated endeavours were made to force the workmen to agree to a reduction of from (3d to 9d per ton, which means, taking the average production per man per day at two tons, a reduction in the miners' daily earnings of from Is to Is (id. in addition to this, miners who have been locked out of the South Waratah mine, and who sought and obtained work elsewhere, have been prevented from getting work, or dismissed, at four different collieries, and boycotted and victimised in the most heartless and unceremonious manner. These reductions and this arbitrary and inhuman treatment have been protested against over and over again. Repeated attempts have been made to obtain redress by negotiations, but all have failed, and the miners have been forced to the conclusion that such proceedings could only be prevented by a strike or by submitting to a lockout. Those amassing wealth and drawing unprecedented dividends from the results of the miners' labour, evidently desire and intend to make further inroads on the earnings of the worker toiling for his daily pittance, and to extort from labour its legitimate reward. Wo wish it to be clearly understood that in this case we are not the aggressors. We are simply defending one of the highest principles for which workmen can contend—a principle worthy of the unlimited support of ourselves and the general body of the workers, and which is summed up in the words, ' the unequal distribution of wealth.' There will be nearly six thousand workmen involved in this struggle, and we appeal to your sense of justice to do all in your power to aid the workers now defending their rights and yours—the inalienable rights of labour. Having taken up a position forced upon us in the general interest of a humane cause, let it be your earnest endeavour to rjrevent us from failing in so noble an undertaking. Failure on our part means the further oppression of labour, while successful negotiation for an agreement will mean the establishment of peace and prosperity in one of the first industries of Australia.—James Curi.ev, Miners' General Secretary, Committee Room-;, Tattersall's Hotel, Newcastle, August 29th, 1888." THK RATE OF PAY. The Sydney Morning Herald says : Our readers will be interested in learning the rate of pay obtained by the miners while in work. " Our correspondent, who is at Newcastle, sends us the following in regard to this matter : " In glancing over some of the pay-sheets in the manager's office of the Burwood Colliery to-day I copied the earnings per day of .'52 men for a fortnight from the 6th instant. The pay-sheet was the first one I took up, and here are the figures as they appear in the day column : 17s 2d, 21s 9d, lis s<l, 12s sd, 10s 4d, 9s fid <)s 101, !0s lid, 10s Id, lis '2d, lis (id; 10s lOd, 12s 9d, 16s Id, 18s, 12s Id, 13s sd, 14s Id, 13s 3d, 10s 6d, 15s lOd, 9s 9d, 12s 7d ; 13s 4d, lis 2d, 12s 3d, 10s Bd, 12s, 14s sd, 13s 6d, 18s 6d, and 12s Id. This is not a picked sheet, and can be taken as a fair average per day of their earnings. In other sheets for the present month it tippears that some of the best coal-hewers earned 22s per day, and in only one instance did a figure as low as 7s 6d appear, and this was the payment of a man who is a very inferior coal miner. This 7s Od is the average Victorian miner's earnings. It must also be stated that in the instances where the earnings per day readied as high as 225, the men only worked five days a-week, evidently being satisfied to such an extent that a holiday for a day's fishing, coursing, or shooting, the favourite pastimes of the coal-miners up here, could be availed of in the happiest frame of mind. A fact worth mentioning and one very apropon, is that the miners can take two holidays in the week without asking the manager or giving any intimation whatever of it. If, however, the miner is absent the third day, he is expected to send a satisfactory excuse. In one batch of six men paid, I found that in four weeks they divided £92." EFFECTS OF THK STRIKE. On Saturday, August 25, the first effects of the strike were felt, especially by the tradesmen of Newcastle and other townships in the colliery district. It is estimated that the takings of the shopkeepers averaged about 40 per cent less than usual." Many, no doubt, will be utterly ruined by the strike. Work in connection with shipping operations at Newcastle almost ceased". Many shopkeepers gave their employes a week's notice, and it is thought that fully 1000 assistants will thus be rendered idle. The miners are looking to the trade unions of Australia for support, but there seems to be some uncertainty as to whether these unions are in sympathy with them. It is a noticeable fact that the Trades and Labour Council of Melbourne sent only £50, which called forth a very cynical allusion from Mr. Curley, as an amount like that was bub as a drop in a bucket. From £20,000 to £25,000 was the average fortnightly pay of the miners, and money must come in in much larger sums than fifties if anything like a living is provided for the strikers. A baker at one of the coal centres takes a very lugubrious view of the position. He says, " The tradesmen must supply the miners so long as the merchants keep us in stock, bub when we cease to obtain supplies, the miners must go short of bread." And so it is with the general run of tradespeople; they say they are compelled, during a strike, to give as much credit as is wanted from them. If they refused, they would be boycotted eventually and their connection ruined. The miners have a happy [ knack of regarding strikes in the light of

insolvencies, and they religiously decline upon the termination of the strike to score off any accounts standing against them. OVER SIX THOUSAND MEN OUT. On Friday afternoon, August 24, the men ceased work, and by five o'clock they had all left the mines, taking with them their picks, shovels, and other paraphernalia. Great excitement prevailed at some of the larger mines, where the men met in some hundreds at the mouths of the pits, but there were no disorderly or riotous scenes of any kind. Different versions are put forward regarding the occasion of the strike, but outside the circle of the workmen themselves the feeling of the public seems to be that the men have acted imprudently and without sufficient cause. It is estimated that about 6000 men have thus voluntarily thrown themselves out of work, whilst about 500 more, who were not miners, but who were engaged in various fields of industry depending on the mines are thrown out of work by the action of the miners.