THE COAL MINERS’ STRIKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21671, 15 June 1932, Page 6

THE COAL MINERS’ STRIKE.

The coal miners’ strike involves a national loss of a serious nature, though' not nearly so serious as it would have been if the country were wholly dependent upon its coal measures for the supply of heat and for the generation of motive power. And for the repson that, despite the availability of , othei sources of heat and power, with which coal was not so long ago not brought into competition, it does entail a serious loss, it is in the public interest that it should be terminated without any unnecessary delay. The Minister of Mines has so far refused to intervene in the trouble by summoning a conference between the parties. He has done so on the ground that there was no justification for the strike, and that it rests with the mine-owners and the miners themselves to arrange for a conference. The secretary of , the West Coast Miners’ District Council, representing a large body of miners, who stopped work .without waiting for a conference to which the mine-owners had agreed, pleads that the mineOAvners have refused to take pait in a conference that is not subject to the condition that they shall have the right to exercise their discretion in the engagement and dismissal of miners. That Avas a condition which Avas imposed only after steps that Avere taken to hold a conference in the Auckland district were rendered nugatory because the Hikurangi miners obstinately persisted in striking as a protest against the dismissal of some of their number Avhose services the OAvners found they Avere unable any longer to utilise. The condition is not one that in any industry other than the mining industry would be regarded as extraordinarily oppressive. It is generally accepted in industry as reasonable and inevitable. But it constituted the ground upon Avhich miners all over the country have gone on sti'ike. To the collieries that have been throAvn idle because of this condition, the attempt has been made to add the mine at Kaitangata. A strike there would have been unlawful because, as the secretary of the Miners’ Union informed us in a letter that appeared in our columns yesterday, the work in the mine is. being carried on ih terms of an agreement, made in the Arbitration Court, Avhich does not expire until April 30,, 1933. It is fortunate that the good

sense of the majority of the miners preserved the union from the adoption of a course which would have entailed a violation of that agreement. The secretary of the West Coast Miners’ District Council has told the Minister of Mines that resumption of work is impossible under the condition which the mine-owners have announced. That is not a very reassuring statement, since the claims which the mine-owners will make, when a conference is held, may be expected to include this very condition., In saying, however, that this condition must be withdrawn if a conference is to be held, and that unless it is withdrawn there will be no resumption of work, the West Coast Miners’ District Council is itself seeking to impose a condition upon the holding of a* conference. This latest communication from the District Council hardly encourages the hope that the atmosphere is of such a kind at the present time as is favourable to a conference which might be expected to be productive of an agreement. It is necessary, however, that representatives of the- two parties shall be brought together as early as possible in order that the extent' to which their conflicting views are reconcilable may be ascertained and that ■ the effort may be made to bring them into accord.