Coal Miners At Strongman Going Slow

Chronicle (Levin), 27 June 1949, Page 4

Coal Miners At Strongman Going Slow

Press Associatiort)

(Per

GREYMOUTH, June. 27. For some reasop not so far publicly disclosed, the miners at the Strongman State coal mine, one of the biggest in the Grey distriet, are "going slow." The output last week was just over 1250 tons, or 1000 fcons below the normal average, although the complement of men and working hours were the same as usual. Although not officially confirmed, it is learned from the miners themselves that the Minister, Mr. McLagan, towards the end of the- week took drastic action in an attempt to force a return to normal production by cancelling all contracts and bonus payments to miners and truckers until such time as the output returns to normal. This means that the Strongman employees are now on the minimum wages 'fixed in the miners' working agreeinent and their gross earnings will be very much less than normal. , The reaction to the Ministerial move is not yet known, although a prolongedl stopwork meeting was held at Strongman this morning before the men ultimately went to work. It is understood that union officials told the management that the output would continue to be below normal and further moves on both sides are now awaited. An unusual feature of the trouble is that it appears that the Strongman miners are "acting on their own" in the matter in that there is no indication that the Runanga State Miners' Union, which comprises workers at both the Strongman and Liverpool mines, has been brought into the discussions. '/It is usual when any trouble occurs at either, mine for a mass meeting of unionists to be held on.the Sunday, but no such meeting was called yesterday.