WORK TO RESUME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22733, 20 May 1937, Page 14

WORK TO RESUME

HUNTLY COAL MINES

DECISION BY UNION NORMAL CONDITIONS DISMISSED MEN REINSTATED [by telegraph—own correspondent] HAMILTON. Wednesday Work in all coal mines in tho Huntly district will bo resumed to-morrow, in accordance with a resolution passed at a meeting of the men hold in Huntly this morning. About 400 men wero present. After hearing details from union officials of last night's conference between the employers and tho men's representatives, they decided by u majority vote to go back to work under normal conditions.

The president of tho Northern Miners' Union, Mr. I. Hutchinson, said to-day that the trucker, whose dismissal from the Mac Donald mine last Thursday had caused the men from tho five mines in the district to stop work, would resume work to-morrow. As far as the union was concerned, he would be back-in his usual employment, and if any special conditions were attached to tho reinstatement tho union knew nothing of it. Tho Miners' Union was content that the men should return to work now that the dismissed man had been given back his job. said the secretary of the union, Mr. T. Hall. The man should have received 14 days' notice. Asked whether further developments were likely when another 14 days had expired, Mr. Hall confined himself to saying that from to-morrow normal working conditions would prevail. The actual terms of the resolution carried by the miners were: —"That tho miners will resume work to-morrow, under normal conditions, and tho trucker concerned in the dispute will resume work under the same conditions."

Already the dispute has caused serious loss. Tho Railway Department alone, which normally handles 6000 tons of coal from the mine in one day, has lost the handling of 20,000 tons of coal. This loss is estimated at £15,000. The loss is more serious at this time of the year, as the peak of the season, when the demand for household coal is greatest, is rapidly approaching, and time lost cannot be made up. It is stated that, as the dispute of the last few days is not regarded as a strike, the men themselves received no allowance from the union.