COLLIERY DISPUTE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26558, 5 September 1947, Page 5

COLLIERY DISPUTE

STOPPAGES IN YORKSHIRE SPREAD TO WHOLE AREA FEARED Rec 10 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 4. The striking miners at Grimethorpe contend that it is out of the question for older miners to work the increased stint originally agreed on. It was feared that unless a quick settlement is reached the strike may spread to all 137 Yorkshire pits employing 146,000 miners. It is estimated that the loss is well over 200,000 tons. About 60,000 tons more will be lost every day the strike lasts. The national executive of the National Union of Miners has called upon the Grimethorpe strikers to resume work forthwith. It stated that when work was resumed the Fact Finding Committee would investigate the dispute. The National Union of Miners required the Grimethorpe miners’ assurance that they would accept the Fact Finding Committee’s recommendations. There is a feeling that the South Yorkshire miners’ strike is out of hand, says Reuters. Some miners are drawing a similarity with the great strike of 1926. Mernwhile. diminishing coal production threatens the output of 2400 factories. Some cotton mills have had to begin drawing on winter coal stocks, and steel „ production may be reduced by more than 25 per cent, if the stoppage continues. Miners at two pits at the Whancliffe Woodmoor colliery who have been striking in sympathy with the Grimethorpe miners, have decided to resume to-morrow. Industrial gas consumers in Sheffield and the district have been asked to reduce consumption by 50 per cent, because of the Yorkshire coal strike.