BRITISH MINERS' CLAIMS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 78, 19 April 1937, Page 8

BRITISH MINERS' CLAIMS

(British Offioial Wireless.)

Ballot on Rights of Rival Unions A SMALL ISSUE

EUGBY, April 16. A vote has just been taken of all the eoalfields in Britain on the question of strike action in conneetion with local disputes. Two points are involved ac;cording to the account of the matter which. the Secretary of Mines gave in the Commons. It is thought both arise out of the presence since 1926 of two rival unions in the area, one autonomous and the other affiliated to the MincWorkers' Federation of Great Britain. After the strike last'November at Harworth colliery the owners wished to make membership of the autonomous union a condition of re-employment. The condition was later withdrawn but the question of victimisation of the men involved in the Hurworth dispute remains in dispute. Meantime through the good offices of the Mines Department the leaders of the two unions negotiated on a basis of amalgamation but the Mine WoTkers' Federation executive later declined to proceed with the amalgamation scheme pending a settlement of the victimisation question and decided to take a ballot ,of the whole country on the question of enforcing the principle of freedom of organisation which they claim is challenged by the refusal of the company to recognise the union affiliation to the Federation. The compa'ny on the other hand whieh recognises the autonomous union is pre-, pared to negotiate the question at issue if and when the amalgamation scheme is earried through. The questions are so near to settlement, and a general coal, strike in the near f uture is f elt by the publie to be so out of proportiou in its effects to the issues left unsettled, that widespread helief in a peaceful outcome prevails.