WORK AND WAGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 April 1919, Page 2

WORK AND WAGES.

THE MILLERTON TROUBLE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Westport, Last Night. W Davidson, president of the Miners' Union, states that the demands of the miners at Millerton are greatly misunderstood. The facts are that the miners have usually made personal arrangements with the managers to the detriment of the miners in general. Heretofore the custom prevailing at the Millerton mine in connection with trucking has been very unsatisfactory in so far as the men ivere required to come out from two to four hours a day. The miners desired that all arrangements in regard to working the mine that need readjustment be submitted to the management through their representatives. The management insist they should be empowered to make arrangements as regards payments, etc., in connection with matters hot provided for in the agreement at present in operation between the company and the union. The union maintains that all arrangements made should not be with individual members of the union, but directly through the activities of the union. Every miner at Millerton is prepared to truck, providing he is kept in that particular employment for the whole of a shift. The miners do not wish to dictate to employers as to the amount of work they should do. The miners' demands amount to the following: An agreement to be made between the union and the company, and not by an industrial member; the miners, if required to leave the face, are prepared to do so for the period of the shift. The action of the miners relieves the pressure under which the company are smarting through shortage of truckers, every miner placing himself at their service is prepared to do a full shift's trucking. Word from Millerton this morning states that the men are still out.