STRIKE AT WAIHI

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 214, 29 May 1918, Page 6

STRIKE AT WAIHI

MINING ENGINEERS CEASE WORK DISPUTE REGARDING WAGES AND HOURS By Telegraph-Press Association. Waihi, May 28. Members of the local branch of tjio Amalgamated Society of Engineers, having been unable to come to terms with the mining companies in connection with tho disputo regariliii!; tho wages and hour clauses, as set out in t'he recent award, camo out on strike at noon today. At present only about 50 men are involved, l>ul unless a settlement can bo reuched at an early date tho situation may becomo both serious and farreaching.

A conference with the heads of tho mining companies followed a stop-work meeting yesterday afternoon, .find in the evening the men notified the companies that unless their demands .were acceded to the men would cease work to-day. A circular has been issued by the Waihi district of the Ohinemuri fbranch of tho A.S.E. to tho effect that a memorandum was issued by the Arbitration Court (withimt notice to tho union) in conjunction with au amendment to the award, stating that an error had been made, inasmuch as tlie Court failed to take into consideration the fact that tho engineers oiil.y worked 45 hours a week as against -17 worked by other branches of tho engineering industry in other parts of tho Dominion, and that the amendment was mado for the purposo of bringing the Ohinemuri engineers into line with the awards mado in other parts of the ..Dominion. The circular states that the effect of the amendment is to reduce the wages previously fixed.