WAS RIO COAL MINERS

Otago Witness, Issue 3513, 12 July 1921, Page 25

WAS RIO COAL MINERS

USE OF FORKS OBJECTED TO. INVERCARGILL, July 4. The miners at Linton and Wairaki struck this morning as a protest against the owners requiring them to use forks instead of shovels in the handling of the coal. Tho men are paid by weight, and the forks would screen the coal, thus reducing their earnings. “THE BREAD AND BETTER ROBBER.” (From Our Own Correspondent.) INVERCARGILL, July 6. The secretary of the Nightcaps District Miners’ Association says that 1 lie men of the Mount Linton and Wairaki collieries are not on strike, but have been locked out. He staves that the men at the collieries offered themselves for work as usual on Monday morning. They passed the general manager of each mine on then* way to work, and no comment was made by either men. On arriving at the mine mouth, however, they were bluntly informed by the underground manager that he had received orders not to allow _ the men to proceed below, unless they introduced forks. No ten days’ notice of the forks haying to be brought into use had been given by the management, they being informed thenceforth that they would have to use forks instead of shovels to fill coal, or return home. The men had no option but to return. Forcing forks upon the men was a direct infringement by the companies of the agreement, inasmuch as all rates were drawn up on the basis of shovels being used. In no part of New Zealand had agreements been phrased upon the fork usage. The fork, or the "daft man’s shovel,” as it is called in Scotland, was a most cumbersome tool to use. Its use in Great. Britain had of late been almost totally discarded. The miners cannot produce much more than onethird to one-half the amount of coal in a given time as they can with a miners shovel. The small coal falls between the prongs of the fork, and this when heated caused spontaneous combustion, which gave off noxious gases, such as carbon, monoxide, and so forth. Oxidation also caused fire and even explosions. The secretary further stated that the matter has become a federation question, and the men have the unanimous support of the federation executive, and the delegates arc now holding a conference in Wellington. H is certain that the men never again intend to use the antiquated “bread and butter robber” —the fork. The companies, he says, are incriminating themselves by locking tire men out, and axe therefore liable to prosecution.