COAL MINERS’ DISPUTE

Otago Witness, Issue 3518, 16 August 1921, Page 24

COAL MINERS’ DISPUTE

LETTER TO THE FEDERATION. WELLINGTON, August 9. Correspondence continues to pass between the Mine Owners’ Association and the Miners’ Federation concerning the nonsettlement of the mining dispute. The latest letter from Mr T. O. Bishop, acting secretary of the Mine Owners’ Association, to Mr John Arbuckle, of the federation, disclaims any desire to break up tho Miners’ Federation, and adds: “The Miners’ Federation has been in existence for 6ome 10 to 12 years, o,nd the experiment of a national agreement had not been tried till a little more than a year ago. If the federation existed for all those years, and presumably fulfilled tho ji ul 'P os e of the miners in the absence of a national agreement, wherein lies the danger to the existence of tho federation in reverting to the system of .making local agreements with coal companies? 1 am convinced by past experience that the only practical method of making arrangements is to make them locally at each mine or district, after a discussion by the representatives of those who will subsequently have to carry them out. Tho Coal Mine Owners’ Association is not seeking to interfere with the international affairs of your federation or the relationship between your organisation and tho several unions, nor is it seeking to revert to any old conditions that were unsatisfactory. You say that a meeting between the presidents and secretaries of our organisations will he fruitless, a® the miners at the recent conference decided to stand or fail by a national agreement; but as you have all along been acting under a misunderstanding of the owners’ objects, it is quite possible that such a meeting might not be fruitless, and I therefore repeat my invitation to your president and yourself, and trust you will accept it.”