MINERS' MANIFESTO

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 298, 12 September 1888, Page 4

MINERS' MANIFESTO

The Amalgamated Miners' Association ha\e issued a manifesto appealing for aid to their fellow-workmen in Australasia and the general public. Alter gi\ ing a narrative of the ineffectual etlorts made to an i\ c at an agreement without a stiike, the document sets forth their grievances thus : "These grievances are too numeioih to permit of recapitulation here, but chiet among them is the attempt of the pro prietors to compel the men to woilc and throw back rubbish from among the coal for nothing, or, in other words, to do additional work without an increase of pay. In several of the collieries bands of stone run through the coal seams, which have to be extracted and separated from the coal by the miner. For several years this work was paid for on the lines laid down in mutual agreement, which the ma ters themselves v abruptly terminated and refused to come to any fresh agreement, leaving the miners to obtain payment for this extra, work as best they could. Arbitration has been refused by the masters, a general agreement inde rimteJy deferred, and repeated endea\ours made to force the workmen to a^'te^o a i eduction of from 6d to 9d per ton Vhich meant, takine the aveiage pioduccion per man per day at two tons, a 1 eduction in the miner's daily earnings of irom Is to Is 6d. Ln additi n to this the minei- uho ha\e been locked out of the South Varatah mine, and who had sought and obtained work elsewheie, have been prexented iroin get tins? work or dismissed from tour different collieries, and boycotted and victimised in a most heartless and unceremonious manner. These reductions and this arbitral y and inhumane treatment have been protested against over and ovei again. ■Repeated attempts have been made to ob tain rediess by negotiation, but all have failed, and the miners ha\e been toiced to the conclusion that such proceedings could only be prevented by a strike, or by submitting to a lockout. "'