NO SETTLEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1943, Page 4

NO SETTLEMENT

OF AMERICAN MINING DISPUTE WAGE CONFERENCE DEADLOCK. NEW THREAT OF GENERAL STRIKE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) RUGBY, June 20. Negotiations between the coal operators and the United Mine Workers' Association have collapsed, increasing the probability of a nation-wide coal strike at midnight tonight, states a Washington message. Mr Ezra Van Horn, the wage conference chairman, announced that the conference had ' adjourned sine die, thus barring any immediate resumption of negotiations. Meanwhile more than 70,000 miners are striking. If a general strike is declared tomorrow, 130,000 workers will be idle. Mr J. L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers' Association, refused to comment on the breakdown, but said the United Mine Workers’ Association Policy Committee was meeting later to decide on future action.

After today’s meeting the operators telegraphed to Mr Harold Ickes, and to the War Labour Board chairman, Mr Davis: “No possibility of agreement exists,” adding that the negotiations broke down because the miners were not willing to relinquish their claim for portal to portal pay, which the War Labour Board has refused on the ground that it is a matter for the Courts to decide.

The Associated Press learns authoritatively that neither Mr Lewis nor the operators made any new proposal during the weekend conferences. MiLewis is steadfastly refusing to recognise the War Labour Board's authority or to sign a contract as the board directed.