COAL MINE STRIKE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1931, Page 6

COAL MINE STRIKE

A DEADLOCK. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association) WHANGAREI, August 24. Crucial conditions continue in connection with the strike which commenced last' Wednesday at Wiison’s (N.Z.) Portland Cement Company’s mine at Hikurangi. Two hundred men attended a meeting of the Miners’ Union branch yesterday when the decision reached was one practically a unanimous vote, to hand the dispute over to the National United Mine Workers Union.

Representations have been telegraphed and it is expected that a definite reply will be received early this week. “The men are not worrying whether the mine is closed or not. The owners have been holding a bogey over o’ur heads all the time using it as a weapon to'bring the men into submission,” declared Mr Latham, Sec-j rotary of the Union. Meantime the mine is manned by a skeleton staff. Five pumps have reached the surface, and are being dismantled. Tile management indicates that unless the men resume work to-morrow the last eight pumps (big eight inch) which cost £ISOO, will lie withdrawn, which would mean the irretrievable swamping of the workings. There is much anxiety concerning the safety of the men in the adjoining mine of the Hikurangi Coal Company, as the workings there / are bound to flood, if Wilson’s mine is left unattended.

The total number employed at Wilson’s and Hikurangi mines are 360, while other small mines in the vicinity employ 60 men.

Wilson’s workers declare that the next move must come from the Company.