HUNTLY MINERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1939, Page 5

HUNTLY MINERS

DECISION TO RESUME WORK AFTER TWO-DAY STRIKE. OVER DISMISSAL OF AGED EMPLOYEE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 8. Alter two days of idleness, 400 men employed at the Macdonald and Glen Afton mines, operated near Huntly by Glen Afton Collieries, Limited, will return to work tomorrow. As a result of the dismissal by the management/- of an aged employee, activities at the mines ceased after a stop-work meeting on Monday morning, miners disagreeing with the employers' view that the man concerned, who was aged 76, was no longer capable of carrying out his duties efficiently. The question was discussed for three hours at a meeting of the Glen Afton branch of the Northern Miners’ Union this morning', when members of the union executive addressed' assembled workers. It was decided that work should be resumed tomorrow, pending the carrying out of negotiations concerning the dispute. For most of the 400 men who were involved in the stoppage, work will not be resumed till 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, and after the meeting today most of them returned to their homes. However, about a dozen will start at midnight on what is known as the “dog watch,” of eight hours, for the purpose of attending the mine pumps.

It is assumed that the miners themselves are satisfied to leave the question of the aged employee’s dismissal to the executive of the union. A committee is in existence to deal with matters of this kind, and it is understood that negotiations will be conducted by this means.