GREEN ISLAND STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 June 1919, Page 5

GREEN ISLAND STRIKE.

FURTHER STRIKE SAIDTO-BE THREATENED. ' " Dunedin, June 10, - In the Magistrate's Court to-day, before Mr. Widdowson, S.M., the Inspector of Awards claimed to recover £lO as a penalty against each of twenty men for breach of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act by becoming party to a strike by the Green Island Coalminers' Union, while bound by an industrial agreement, Mr. Irwin, for the defendants, admitted the offence. Ho said that the miners applied to tho owners for a change of conditions in connection with two matters, and the employers declined to entertain the suggestions, pointing out that they were already working under ait agreement with the local union. The secretary communicated with Wellington, and the Dominion secretaries advised referring the matters in dispute to the disputes committee. The men waited on one of the owners and asked'the owners to nominate three representatives to tho disputes committee. That teaa not done. This was before the strike occurred. One of the two demands node had been acceded to now, but the ""■«» was still in abeyance. Until a Dominion alteration had been made the men said the owners refused to nominate three representatives to the committee. The men had named their representatives although not in writing. Most of the' ' defendants were married.

Mr. McGregor, representing the Labor' Department, said the men wonted to upset the award on two cardinal and the owners could not possibly taeet, them- Both sides were bound by the award, which could not be upiet be-' cause the men wanted more vases.; Under the Act, the union must do>aU in 1 its power to prevent a strike" but,) instead, they did their utmos to rtre-i i cipitate a strike. The ownenr hiul lad : s i a hard struggle to keep the fires la mines under. A deputation frtftn the men to Christie Brothers threatenad oni Wednesday that if the cpses were noil withdrawn the men would not go fol work this morning. The pits were idle'' this morning, and the bulk of the men' were in court. That, in the eyes of the ' law, was another strike. .r ftlrwinptMitat of the unloß, said cnat if a statement was made, threaten-' , ing a further strike it was notSde I under instructions from the union ar by i any depuation sent by the onion. The' onion did not send a deputatloa-to'the i owners.

The magistrate said that any strike, of this kind was a serious matter, only to the miners, bat to the employers, and, from a public point of view,, li as v , er y serious to the consumers-. He thought the loweirt penalty he impose was a fine, of £2 each, wititwrtS (11a 8d each). "' ~