Millions Lost.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 September 1920, Page 4

Millions Lost.

EFFECT OF BARRIER STRIKE

I £17,000,000 IN OUTPUT AND I WAGES. It is estimated that over £10,000,000 ha,s been directly lost to Australia as a . result of the Broken Hill strike, and that about 25,000 men have lost, their employment in consequence of the strike Of this total 7500 were employed directly in the mines and the others in the railways and allied and incidental industries. It is also -estimated that the employees directly and indirectly affected by the strike have lost in wages £7,500,000 during the same period Privation and misery have been brought to a thriving city of 30,000inhabitants, who are solely dependent on the mining industry of Broken. Hill (says the Sydney “Adorning Herald”). Hardship lias also been inflicted on 70,000' people who are directly and in- : directly depndent on the industry, j Not only -have the Broken Hill in- , dustries suffered, but the smelting works at Port I’rie works prior to tho strike was estimated at 140,000 tons per annum; silver 8,000,000,000 oz. per annum ; and zinc concentrates, 40,000 tons Over 168,000 tons of coal are consumed in tho course of a year at Broken Hill when the works are in operation, and over 14,000,000 superficial feet of timber, the greater portion of which is Australian hardwood is also used. Tho South Australian revenue has been seriously effected as tho result of the loss of revenue from the railway traffic from ißfrokie'n Hill. The output from the Cockle Creek smelting works and the zinc works at Risdon, Tasmania, has been reduced in consequence of tho trouble. Without the smelters at Port pirie to convert the concentrates produced at the mines into market metal there would have been no work at Broken Hill during the war. Concentrates were then unsaleable. The strike started 1-3 months ago in consequence of an inter-union quarrel between the Amalgamated. Miners and the Federated Engine Drivers and Fire men’s Union. AVith this quarrel the employers had nothing whatever to do. When, however, it was adjusted, and before the strikers had resumed, the A.M.X. declared that its members would not go back to work until they were conceded, amongst other things, £1 a day minimum, a six-hour day, a fiveday week, the abolition of the contract system, and the abolition of the night shift.

It was recently stated in London that during the first ten years of developmental work on the Barrier the -companies spent £1,000,000 in wages without receiving any dividend. The companies declare that under the conditions now demanded by the men the mines can he worked only at a loss.