MINING STRIKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1943, Page 3

MINING STRIKE

IN THE UNITED STATES JOHN L. LEWIS DEMANDS NEGOTIATIONS. FOR TWO DOLLAR WAGE INCREASE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 30. Mr John L. Lewis has sent a letter to President Roosevelt renewing his demand for continued negotiations through collective bargaining, which Mr Lewis alleges the coal employers wilfully blocked. Mr Lewis did not mention the strike threat, nor did he mention whether the coal miners are complying with the President’s order to return to work. Mr Lewis met the policy committee of the miners’ unions in New York. A survey disclosed that strikers on the five bituminous fields now total 85,900, with the strikes spreading and the strikers maintaining that Mr Lewis must order them to return to work. The soft coal miners’ contract with the mine owners expires at midnight, as does a similar contract between the anthracite miners and operators. Both soft and hard coal miners are demanding a two dollars a day wage increase. Mr Lewis has renewed his demand for continued negotiations through collective bargaining, but has made no direct threat of a coal miners’ strike. President Roosevelt ordered the miners to return to work by 10 a.m. today and threatened, if the order were not obeyed, to use his powers as Comman-der-in-Chief to prevent interference with the prosecution of the war. In a telegram to Mr John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, and Mr T. Kennedy, the anthracite miners’ representative, Mr Roosevelt said he had confidence in the miners’ patriotism and was sure they would return when they realised the effect the strike would have on the boys at the front.