MORE TIME LOST

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 6

MORE TIME LOST

RAIN DETERS MINERS BLACKBALL DISMISSALS MEN NOMINATED BY UNION (0.C.) GREYHOUTH, Tuesday When the Liverpool State miners arrived at the bath house at Kewanui this morning a meeting was held and it was decided, on account of heavy rain, to return home. It was stated that the men considered they would be wet through by the time they had walked from the bath house to the mine mouth, a distance of about a quarter of a mile.

The Strongman and James mines, which were idle on Monday on account of a dispute over the dismissal of a trucker on Thursday, resumed this morning. A meeting of the State Miners' Union and a conference with the manager resulted in the trucker concerned being reinstated. As a result of complaints made by one of four men dismissed from the Blackball State mine recently it has been ascertained that the management did not select the men who were to be dismissed, but that the Blackball Miners' Union nominated the men. The department decided in the first place that to reduce production and make for more regular working the number of men employed at the mine should be reduced by 14. Nine men left of their own accord, and of the five men who had then to receive notice one has since been placed on a temporary job.

Two of the men dismissed are married, one with six children and the other with three children. The department decided orginallv that only single men would be dismissed, but the union objected, deciding that married men should receive no preference. MINISTER'S SATISFACTION "BETTER FEELING" OBJECTIVE ' Satisfaction with the outcome of conferences held this week with representatives of Waikato coal-owners and miners was expressed yesterday by the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb. He said he was hopeful that coal production would benefit as a result of the contacts made. "The Waikato coal-owners' Association met to-day and informed the Under-Secretary for Mines, Mr. C. H. Benney, that it had agreed to have a survey of housing accommodation made at once," Mr. Webb said. "It also agreed that representatives would confer with representatives of the Waikato miners, and discuss the whole question of improving housing accommodation and social amenities in the mining districts."

Mr. Webb said that the owners had agreed further to set up a subcommittee to confer with colliery managers and union representatives on the establishment of pit committees at each colliery. In addition, they had decided to discuss with the men prospects of forming advisory councils to keep in close touch with development associated with the mines. The miners' representatives had been informed of the decisions, and had agreed to co-operate to the fullest extent with the owners to facilitate more production and to generate a better feeling.