TROUBLE AT MINES.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18395, 31 July 1931, Page 6

TROUBLE AT MINES.

THE RENOWN COLLIERIES. NO SETTLEMENT REACHED. , ATTITUDE OF OWNERS. HUNTLY, Thursday. An all-day meeting of miners employed In the Renown collieries, Rotowaro, was held to-day. No settlement has yet been reached. “ The demand made by the men is most unfair and inhuman to the outside worker," said Air W. D. Holgate, president of the New' Zealand Coal Mine Owners’ Association, yesterday, in referring to the dispute w-iiirh has rendered the Renown Aline at Rotowaro and its 180 employees idle since last Monday. Mr Holgate stated that a meeting of the northern members of Ihe association would he held to-day to consider the position. The men ceased work because they were not granted a demand that outsiders should not be employed In dumping slack ■ coal. The demand originated with 15 men working at the who considered that the work should be kept for Ihem so that they might make up short time.

“ The Reijown Company has no control over the slack alter it leaves the screens,” said Mr Holgate. “At that stage it becomes the property of Waikato Carbonisation, Limited, of which I am chairman. This company either delivers It to customers, or, if there is no Immediate market, dumps it. For this work we use outside casual labour. The union know's perfectly well that slack cannot bo held up in trucks until the mine is not working, simply to suit the convenience of union members. In the first place, there are not facilities for holding the trucks, and if there were, demurrage would be charged by the Railway Department.

“ Afost of the men engaged by Waikato Carbonisation, Limited 1 , for handling the slack are casual workers who, like the miners, have waves and families to keep. They are far worse off than the miners, and are exceedingly glad of every two days’ work a week. In every way they are just as much entitled to employment. It w'Ould appear, according to the union’s Idea of the position, that unless a man Is a miner or on the coal company’s payroll, he and his. family may starve. “ It is a common practice for the miners to complain about the short time worked in the Waikato mines, but they do not stop to consider that when they close a mine in this way it is quite possible that the company concerned may lose a certain amount of trade on account of the keen competition between the coal companies. Such a loss of business, of course, means short time for the miners.”