A HITCH

Southland Times, Issue 19898, 17 June 1926, Page 7

A HITCH

MINING DISPUTE WORK ON SATURDAYS BOTH PARTIES FIRM. (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, June 16. An adamant stand on the part of the union delegates for a holiday on Saturday in refusing which the companies are equally firm has led tq a suspension of the discussion on the terms of the proposed new agreement for the North Island coal mines, Glen Afton, Pukemiro, Waipa, Taupiri, Hikurangi and Wilson’s Colleries. The conference will resume on Tuesday prior to which the union delegates will have consulted the miners and discussed with them the statement which the delegates submitted to the conference. The owners’ stand is based on the demands with which their output will be faced as the result of an order for coal from the New Zealand Railways Department, the first they have received from the department for many years at a time when normal orders are sufficient to keep the mines working full time. In spite of the obstruction over the Saturday halfholiday clause the conference continued from Thursday morning until to-day. Proposals, both of the owners and unions, were discussed clause by clause and it was during the discussion that it was stated by the union delegates that their members hud definitely decided there should be no work on Saturdays under an agreement that might be made. In view of that statement the companies’ representatives submit ted the following statement to the men and the conference adjourned until Tuesday to •enable the unions to consider their stand. The Waikato mining companies have now been given an order for coal for New Zealand Railways to be delivered regularly during the next six months. It happens that that period from now until the end of the year will be a busy period for our mines, in which even without the railway orders we are able to work practically full time. We are, however, anxious to supply the orders we have now received from the Government because we wish again to establish the use of our coal for railway purposes and we hope that although the present order comes at a time when our need for* it is leas urgent thap at another period of the year it will subsequently lead to further orders and an improvement in our trade. Any improvement in our trade necessarily means an improvement in the time worked by our employees. In the face of lliis order, the first which we have had for several years for railway coal, the companies are particularly concerned at the decision of the men which you have communicated to us to-day that the mines will not be worked so far as the production of coal is concerned on bank Saturday. We have giverf most careful considation to your statement and to the last proposals which you submitted to us for an agreement and representatives of all the companies who were present have unanimously reached this decision, that they cannot agree to discuss your proposals further with you until the question of Saturday work- has been again submitted to the men as a whole and their decision obtained. In view of the altered conditions of trade I have therefore to ask tha-t you will agree to an adjournment of this conference for long enough to enable you to return to several mines and submit this statement for consideration by the unions. When you have done so we will be prepared to meet you again and to resume negotiations upon receipt of the men’s decision. Our suggestion would be that you hold meetings of several unions between now and the end of the week.