FIVE DAYS' WEEK.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18169, 6 November 1930, Page 3

FIVE DAYS' WEEK.

ROTOWARO & GLEN AFTON. POLITICIANS CRITICISED. A BREACH OP AGREEMENT. AUCKLAND, Thursday. y The president of the New Zealand Coalmine Owners’ Association, Mr W. D. Holgate, expressed the opinion that the Rotowaro miners’ decision to “press for the live-day week” is directly due to the letting of railway coal • contracts to the Rotowaro and Glen Afton mines. Regarding' the part played by Mr 11. E. Holland, M.P., Leader of the Labour Party, and Mr W. Lee Martin, M.P., in persuading the men to this decision, Mr Holgate said the actions of the two politicians were, to say the least, inconsistent. “The proposal to discontinue working on ‘back Saturdays’ involves a distinct breach of the agreement recently entered into between the northern coalmine owners and the Waikato and Hikurangi Miners’ Union,” said Mr Holgate. “It is a proposal that might easily lead to an industrial upheaval. Opposed by Owners. “There have been attempts during the past live or six years by the miners’ unions throughout New Zealand to reduce working days to live weekly. This the Coalmine Owners’ Association has strongly opposed. In the past the miners have worked 11 days a fortnight; that is on all week days except pay Saturdays. It has also been held by the mineowners that, as orders for coal are not regular, coal must be delivered when asked for. “In the Waikato it often happens that to complete an order it is necessary to ask the men to work on ‘back Saturdays,’ and this has always been done when required. For some time, however, the clauses respecting ‘back Saturdays’ have not been enforced on the West Coast of the South Island, although they have been adhered to in other mining centres in Southland, Utago, the Waikato, and at Hikurangi. “Mr Holland and members of the Labour Party joined ihe coalmine owners earlier this year in a deputation to the Government, asking that the coal industry be protected against the importation of Newcastle coal. Mr Holland then emphasised the fact that miners were working short time, and that . there was plenty of coal available, and he urged that in order to give the men more work a duty should be placed on imported coal. With this the miners were in full accord.

"Since then Mr Holland and Mr Marlin have brought up the same question in the House of Representu„ives, yet almost in the same breath, oecause extra orders have been placed by the Railway Department in the Waikato, they have persuaded the men to a decision which involves not only a refusal to work on ‘back Saturdays,’ but also the breaking of a new agreement signed only within the past two months.Easily Led by Agitation. “I may here add that the secretary of the Southern Miners’ Federation, Mr McLaglan, accompanied by Mr Wood, of the Hikurangi Union, paid a visit to Rotowaro in the past fortnight and called for a stop-work meeting. This, I understand, the men refused, but met the two representatives in question outside working hours, and decided not to accede to a request that they should not work on ‘back Saturdays.’ The effect of this .decision, however, has been to bring, in the chief representatives of the Labour Party and the Alliance of Labour, with the result now announced. “To say that there is - no consistency in the actions of Messrs Holland and Martin in this matter is saying very little, but one might go further and ask: Is it in the interests of the miners to persuade them to break an honourable agreement? If the mineowners attempted anything of the same sort every mine and all the men in the Waikato would cease work. The great majority of the miners are reasonable and a line body of workers, but they are, unfortunately, too easily led by agitation.”