Australian Miners’ Dominant Position In Industrial Field

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27389, 15 May 1950, Page 5

Australian Miners’ Dominant Position In Industrial Field

NZPA—Copyright SYDNEY, May 13. Miners held the monopoly of power and were in a strong industrial position, said Mr Justice Foster in the Federal Arbitration Court. “We are all on our knees begging them to give us more coal to keep industry going,” he said. The judge made these comments when Mr R. W. Davie, secretary of the Northern Colliery Proprietors’ Association, gave evidence opposing the claim by the "Australian Council of Trade Unions for a basic wage of £lO a week. Mr Davie said that the “darg,” or limit on output, operated to reduce potential output, and had even extended to mechanisation, because it had been shown in some mines that the output by machines was the same as by hand. • Mr Justice Dunphy: Do miners give any reason for keeping the community short of coal? Mr Davie: They do not even admit the community is short of coal. Mr Justice Foster: There is nothing we can do about it. The miners are in a dominant position’. They have a high standard of living, work 374 hours a week, have other amenities, and sick and annual leave. They even get free football trousers.