Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-14
PRESENT PAY SCALE.
ASKED BY Miners.
Union Committee Demands
Maintenance Of Existing
Basic Wage Schedules
OPPOSES ANY REDUCTION

Scale Committee, reporting TO the
special convention Of the United Mine
Workers of America here today, de-
clared in the most emphatic manner its
opposition to any reduction in the pny
of miners and demanded that the pres
ent basic wage schedules be maintained.
The, committee recommended that the
convention ratify the demands. of the
anthracit, miners for AGO per cent in
crease in tonnage rate aud a 81 day
increase for day men. 1t also declared
for adjustment of unequal differcn-
tials," which would result in small In
creases in various fields.
Other recommended were that oil
new agreements be based upon an
eight hour day under ground with time
and onc-half for overtime and for Sun
days and holidays: that weekly pay
days be instituted that the practice Of
fining miners for certain breaches Of
contracts be eliminated and that the
soft coal wage agreement BE- made for
two years extending from April next.
The committee In making the demand
for retention of the present basic
wages, said reduction would lower
the standard Of living among oil miners
and cause poverty and suffering
throughout the coal fields.
Living Wage Demanded
1--WE hold," says the committees re-.
port. that the mine workers employed
in and around the coal mines of the
American continent are entitled to re-.
ceive as compensation for labor per-
formed an annual income sufficient to
maintain themselves and their families
decently, comfortably and In accordance
with the American standard of living.
The dictates Of humanity. public inter-
est and public welfare demand this be
made the preferred claim upon the in
dustry.
that its fuel needs be supplied at the
expense of a degraded citizenship. ac-
by human misery, starvation
and want, superinduced by inadequate
annual earnings paid to those who mine
coal. The cost in sacrifice and human
wretchedness is too great.
"AIining Is hazardous occupation.
Men engaged in underground toll work
under conditions carrying with them an
intense nervous strain, superinduced
by the constant and countless injuries
and fatalities which occur, anu under
Al atmospheric conditions which sap their
vitality and make them victims of occu' :
pational diseases.
Alliance Again Deferred
Anthracite and bituminous miners
will not form an alliance to threaten q
comnlete tie-up Of the national coal
industry in the event that either side
is unsuccessful in negotiating new
agreement with the operators.
Conditions are so different in each
field that the national chieftains of the
union and the heads Of the various dis
trict organizations have concluded that
the present is not the opportune time OF
using the threat Of the national tie-up
of the coal industry us one OF the
weapons of defense.
The anthracite demands. as formu-
lated in the ShamOkin convention, have
received the official o. X. of the Gen
eral Scale Committee. made UP of the
twenty. seven district leaders in the two
fields, The international convention
will nut its approval on these demands
and then the anthracite men will be free
to undertake their negotiations with the
operators.
The anthracite forces will not wait
on the bituminOus. If q basis can be
found for new working agreement
such contract will be put into force as
soon as a tri-district convention of an
thracite miners ratities II.
Talk of strike among the anthracite
forces is rapidly dying away. There is
Il general feeling thaAa contract can be
arranged without the necessity of strife.
Yet there Is common belief that the
anthracite mines will close April for
suspension that will run for thirty
days at least. President Kennedy de-
rlares the miners can stand a vacation
that length. and thirty days suspension
will stabilize the anthracite industry, a
condition, that the operators are anxious
to bring about.