AT WORK AGAIN

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12617, 30 November 1926, Page 7

AT WORK AGAIN

CREAT COAL INDUSTRY GETTING IN ACTION THIRTY WEEKS’ IDLENESS MANY MINERS NOW MUST WORK LONGER, FOR LOWER WAGES By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. Australian and New Zealand Cable Association. (Received November 29, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, November 2S. Work will be resumed in practically all the toalfields 0.1 Monday. The exceptions are South Wales. Yorkshire and Durham. In Yorkshire and Durham ballots are now being taken on the recommendation that the owners’ terms be accepted. South Wales is expected to ballot in a day or two. In a speech in South Yorkshire, Mr A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, said he refused to call it a defeat. It was a retreat. They would set about the task of recovering ground. The miners ceased work at midnight on April 30th, so they have been idle for 30 weeks. The dispute came to a head on June 30th, 1925, when, the Mining Association gace notice of the termination of the existing wages agreement. The owners offered a new wages scheme, which the miners rejected, but at the end of July the Government decided to subsidise the industry for nine months. At the end of that period no agreement had been reached, and the miners left the pits. Quite apart from the exhaustion of their union funds, the miners have lost heavily. If they had accepted lower wage rates, they could have retained their national agreement, and their seven-hour day. The power to negotiate nationally has been lost, Parliament has rescinded the seven-hour day legislation, and, except in some of the more profitable fields, the miners must work longer, for lower wages. Illllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltllliillllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllll