WIDE CLAIMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23123, 23 August 1938, Page 10

WIDE CLAIMS

AUSTRALIAN MINERS THIRTY-HOUR WEEK DEMAND UPON OWNEBS FORTNIGHT FOE EEPLY By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received August 22, 5.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, August 22 The Miners' Federation has Bervcd copies of its log of claims on all the colliery proprietors in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania and the Governments concerned, and a reply is requested within 14 days. In the meantime aggregate meetings of all coal miners will be held to endorse the strike action decided upon at the recent national convention. The main points of the log are:—A five-day week of six hours a day without reduction of pay; a guaranteed minimum wage for all contract workers; a special Coal Mining Compensation Act; the retirement of miners at the age of 60 on a pension of £2 a week; 14 days' paid holiday annually; and weekly instead of fortnightly pay days. The miners' convention had previously decided that if the demands Were not conceded within two weeks from the date of serving the claims a general strike would bo declared throughout Australia, subject to the sanction of the rank and file at pithead meetings.

ENGINEERS' STRIKE .FAILURE OF CONFERENCE EXTENSION NOW FEARED (Received August 22, 10.5 p.m.) MELBOURNE, August 22 Tho conference called to-day by 'Judge Beeby for the settlement of the engineers' strike at the Fishermen's Bend aircraft factory failed to find a basis upon which work could be resumed, and serious extension of the dispute to other States is now feared. A conference will bo held in Sydney to-morrow to decide whether the munition factory workers in New South Wales shall participate in the strike along with the aircraft engineers. It was stated last week that the workers in tho munitions factories at Footscray and Maribyrnong were prepared to make common cause with the aircraft engineers, who went out on strike as a protest against a proposed new award. The engineers at the naval depot at Garden Island. Sydney, decided to strike in sympathy with the Fishermen's Bend Snen if called upon to do so by the Commonwealth Council.

[ SHOCKING TRAGEDY INDIAN TRAIN WRECK FATE OF PASSENGERS KILLED WHILE ASLEEP MADRAS, August 21 A sudden cloudburst washed away a section of the railway line near Trichinopoly, and as the result, a train was derailed and rolled down an embankment. The accident occurred at midnight, when most of the passengers Were sleeping. , , It is officially stated that at least 25 people were killed. Survivors believe that there are many -more dead, as the train was packed with pilgrims and Indian refugees from Burma. It is reported that an entire wedding party of 20 is missing. Tho injured number 100.