WAGES AND CONDITIONS UNALTERED.

Shannon News, 4 August 1925, Page 4

WAGES AND CONDITIONS UNALTERED.

CONGRATULATIONS FOR MR. COOK. LONDON, July 31. Mr. Cook stated tliat the miners’ wages and conditions would continue the same until the Spring-, at least nine months. During the sitting of th 0 commission of enquiry into the coal industry appointed by the Trade Unions Congress ,thc committee circularised the trade unions announcing that the coal .owners and Minors’ Federation . had accepted the Government proposal and the' embargo on the movement of coal was withddrawn, and work is to K- continued by all. Mr. Cook, the miners’ secretary has received letters and telegrams from trade unionists all over th e country, congratulating him on the great initial triumph of solidarity. Mr Cook has issued a manifesto describing the settlement as merely an armistice. Great issues must still be faced, including the complete re-organisation of industry the elimination of royalties to prevent the exploitation of the consumei and give the nation a return for its ten million subsidy. Thp president of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce, on being interviewed, said if the coal trade needed a subsidy, so did steel, shipping and other industries. Mr. Cook lias issued a statement:

“We have been able to maintain before the whole community the fact that the mine workers arc underpaid and the Government has been compelled to recognise that' the industry requires a complete re-organisation. We shall enter (he inquiry unfearingly. The struggle proves the power of trades unionism.

Mr. Cramp, the railwaymen’s leader, when presiding at the final session, did not claim the coal settlement was a complete victory, but they had something of a respite, which was going to lead to an acknowledgement that workers were entitled to subsistence before any other charge on industry. Difficult times were aheud, before the problems of tli e mining, transport, textile and other industires would be solved. They would not be solved by strikes. Labour must use its own brains in solving the problem of re-

organisation and ownership of industries. The conference concluded and it was decided.that the next conference he held in London in 192?.