SOUTHLAND COAL STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1930, Page 9

SOUTHLAND COAL STRIKE

THE SEQUEL TO DISMISSALS. RESTRICTED OUTPUT ALLEGED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Invercargill,. Last Night. As the result of the dismissal of 17 men at the Wairakei Coal Company’s mine the remaining 20, it is stated, decided to down tools in a sympathy strike. According to a statement issued by the manager, Mr. J. T. Mosley, the men held a stop-work meeting on July 21 and the management had good reason to believe that they passed a resolution limiting their output to eight boxes per man per day in solid work and ten in pillars and tops. “On Friday, July 25, a notice was posted dispensing with the services of all the men engaged on or subsequently to May 13, 1'929, as from August 2, 1930, and cancelling all prospecting work on Monday, July 28,” continued Mr. Mosley. “Another stop-work meeting was held and I accompanied the managing director, who addressed the meeting, explaining the’ financial position of the company and referring to the impossibility of carrying on with rapidly rising costs and decreasing output. We then retired and left the men to themselves.

“gome time later the union secretary, accompanied by two workmen’s delegates, met the managing director and myself on the question of restoring the back shift prospecting work and sharing the work with the temporary men. We refused the first two conditions. .On the third we gave them to understand that providing they resumed the normal output we were willing to either allow temporary men to share the work or dispense with them as regular hands. The same delegation later met me- and informed me that they had decided to share the work with the temporary hands. On my stressing the point of the resumption of the normal output they merely reiterated their statement about sharing the work and declining to admit that there was a restriction of output. On acquainting the managing-director fo the men’s" decision he instructed me to close down the plant. “At a subsequent meetingmf the directors it was decided to open the mine for work under normal conditions this morning. Word was received from Ohai this afternoon that the men had presented terms to the management this morning and that their request regarding sharing work at the Wairakei mine had been declined.”

At a special general meeting of thq Nightcaps district miners union yesterday the following resolution was carried unanimously: That in the event of the Wairakei men 'rejecting the owners’ terms they will receive both the financial and moral support of the whole district.