Employers are the Aggressors.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 74, 9 August 1912, Page 5

Employers are the Aggressors.

REEFTON REPORT,

SACRIFICE OF HUMAN LIFE

The whole cf ths annual report of the Executive of the lnangahua Miners' Union is taken up with a statement concerning the deadlock. It is as fol-lows:—'-The year ending May 31 has been an eventful one. The advent of new management in the large mines of the field has been followed by demands on the part of thoso companies to introduce into our registered agreement, stoping by contract and tho attempt to introduce single-handed machine work, each of which innovations we regard as opposed to the health and safety of our members. The resistance by the Union to the above new conditions led to retaliation on the part of the employers concerned, with the result that in the first eight months of the year the union lost snmn 400 of its members Although sorely tempted by the wholesale dismissal of our members to strike, your union still adhered to its agreement and refused to accept the implied challenge. On May 18 the employers, finding that, although reduced numerically, tho union still refused to accept the new .and dangerous conditions, the whole of our members working in tho Blackwater, Progress and Energetic mines were loeked-out. Scores of our locked-out men have left tho district in order that the union should conserve support to the married men, with the result thnt at the time of writing the report but 100 men are on the pay-sheet. Financial assistance is now coming in freely, and there is ample assurance that the union will bo enabled to hold out for many months to come. In this connection, we desire to take this opportunity of expressing our gratitude to the unions of the Federation of Labor for the splendid financial assistance rendered us, realising to the full that without the solid financial backing received we would not have been able to take such prompt and resolute measures in defence of our rights. We would impress upon members tho fact that in the present struggle the union is simply on its defence, that the employers are the aggressors, and that the Union is not asking for fresh conditions or concessions, but is merely fighting to maintain the conditions of employment as embodied in our agreement. In conclusion, we trust that members will not lose sightsof the issue, and that they will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder in order to successfully resist tlie attempted introduction of conditions of employment which undoubtedly involve the sacrifice of human life."