U.S. COAL STRIKE

Grey River Argus, 31 March 1948, Page 5

U.S. COAL STRIKE

WASHINGTON. March 29

Mr John L. Lewis to-day defied the threat, of a Government subpoena and refused to attend a meeting of the Presidential fact-finding board of inquiry into the soft coal strike which has shut down almost the entire industry in the past fortnight. The dispute is on pension rights. Soon after Mr Lewis refused to attend the inquiry he was served with a sub-poena. Mr Lewis ignored the sub-poena and the Fact-finding Board decided to apply to the Federal Court to force him to testify. Mr Lewis, in a let er to' the board said he would not appear before it because neither he nor the UMWA and two of the board’s three members were, “biased and, in honour, should not serve on it.” As a result of the coal shortage steel rolling mills wil be reduced to 65 per cent capacity this week. The railways are. increasing the cuts in services.

In all 535,000 workers are now idle throughout the country through the coal and abattoirs strike. Late to-day District Court Judge Richmond Keech ordered Mr Lewis to explain to the court, tomorrow why he had ignored the sub-poena. Mr Lewis in 1947 defied a court order and was fined 10.000 dollars and UMWA 700,000 dollars.