MINERS AND ARBITRATION

Maoriland Worker, Volume 1, Issue 5, 20 January 1911, Page 1

MINERS AND ARBITRATION

THE REASON FOR CANCELLATION " A story absolutely without foundation," was the manner in which Mr R. Semple, ex-president of the New Zealand Miners' Federation, and official organiser of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, characterised the recently published rumours that a big coal miners' strike was pending. "I presume the scare originated over the fact that the Coal Miners' Unions all through the dominion are severing their connection with the Arbitration Court by cancelling official registration," said Mr Semple. " The reason for this breaking away from the provisions of the Act, however, is not to cause trouble, but to prevent it. After the Blackball strike both parties appeared before the Court and the award then made was a very unsatisfactory one indeed as far as the miners were concerned. It was hinted by the Judge that the Blackball award should be the basis of all awards to follow. The miners realised that if this became universal they would not be able to work under it. As a matter of fact the Blackball miners applied to the Federation for permission to strike as a protest against the decision of the Arbitration Court. The Federation, however, advised the men to observe the award until the period of its expiration, and then to cancel their registration under the Act. This they did. Had the Court made the conditions imposed in the case of the Blackball miners universal no power in the world would have prevented the miners from throwing down their as one man right through the dominion. They would have kicked right over the traces and there would have been a general strike. To obviate any possibility of the extensive operations of such an award the general cancellation of unions' registration under the Act was decided on. Since then representatives of the mineowners and men have met in conference at Buller, which is the biggest coal mining district in the dominion. A working agreement has been arrived at which is entirely satisfactory to both sides. The issue involved has been dealt with in a practical way by practical men, with the result that the position is more satisfactory now than it has been for years. So far as the general organisation is concerned I have no hesitation in saying that nothing is further from our minds than anything in the nature of a general strike. The organisation has been brought into existence to prevent strikes, and it is doing it. I am proceeding now to Whangarei for the purpose of assisting to bring about the settlement of a local trouble, which is exercising the minds of the men at one of the mines up there. The conference we will hold there will no doubt result in a satisfactory settlement of the difficulty. It is through the knowledge of the past that the miners have formed this Federation, knowing that sectional warfare is a thing of the past and that there is no better way of preventing war than to be prepared for it."

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