MILLERTON MINERS ON STRIKE

Southland Times, Issue 25512, 4 November 1944, Page 4

MILLERTON MINERS ON STRIKE

Man Refused Permission Jo Buy Coal (P.A.) WESTPORT, Nov. 3. No settlement has been reached in the miners’ strike which followed the stopwork meeting of Millerton miners on Thursday. An official of the Westport Coat Company, Limited, stated yesterday that the dispute arose after the refusal of the coal mines to grant permission to a man in the Stockton mine to buy coal for domestic use from the Millerton mine, where his son was employed. The man was employed at the Stockton State mine. He was head of a house and consequently entitled to buy coal at miner’s rates from the Stockton mine. His son was working in the Millerton mine and was not entitled to buy coal for home use. Because of the alleged inferior quality of the coal to which he was entitled the man wanted Millerton coal and considered he’was entitled to it because his son worked in the pit. The coal mines at a meeting recently had refused an application by the man for Millerton coal. The official said the president of the Millerton Miners’ Union advised the management today that, no further work would be carried out in the mine until the man’s request was acceded to. It is estimated that 800 tons of coal have already been lost through the strike, the average output being 400 tons a day.