The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-03-27
ALBERTA COAL
DIG GERS WILL
STRIKE APRIL |.
Bosses Refuse Pact on
Jacksonville Basis
BY JOHN CLIFFORD
Especial 70 The Daily Worker)


DRUMKELLER, Alberta, Mar. 26.
AS result Of deadlock in nego-
tiations with the operators, ten thou
sand miners Of district 10, IT, M. w.
A., comprising Alberta and British
Columbia, will come out on strike on
April /. Negotiations have been go
ing on since the beginning of March,
between the miners and operators,
(and both sides standing firm for their
demands), has resulted in the joint
conference Of miners and operators
being adjourned sine die.
jacksonville Terms.
The miners ask an agreement on
the same basis as the Jacksonville
agreement, that is a three years
agreement on the old scale Of wages,
and the adjustment Of few inequali-
ties in working conditions. The
operators have absolutely refused to
accept the demands of the miners,
and claim they will not sign an agree
ment without a reduction in wages,
and only then a one year agreement.
There is an agitation on in Western
Canada by the operators in the daily
capitalist press for the Ontario mar
ket, the press saying that if the min
ers take reduction in wages the
operators will capture the Ontario
market, thereby giving the miners
steady work.
CooIie Wages-Company Standard.
Their chief argument is that they
can't compete with the non-union
fields who are operating at a lower
cost of production. This argument
of the operators, has been exploded
time and again by the miners, and the
dominion and provincial government
statistics which show that the nom
union fields have worked even less
days than the union fields. The whole
trend of. the operators argument
shows that they are out to bust the
union, and initiate the open shop,
altho the press would make it appear
that the sole interest Of the operators
is to protect the dear public from the
high price of coal, and if the miners
would only take a reasonable reduc-
ton the dear public would get cheap
er coal, the miners more steady work
at the rate of a Chinese coolie, and
the operators more profits.
The miners are wise to this talk of
the operators, and know that if they
concede anything to the boss, that is
the day when they spell ruin and
more misery for themselves and their
families. The bosses are determined
to initiate reduction and the con-
sequent open shop, and the press is
playing its part in advocating. re-
duction and the misrepresentation of
the miners side of the issue. AS
result Of the solid front of the miners,
the bosses thru the press, have init
mated that if the miners do not ac-
cept cut in wages, they will ship |
in scabs to the mines.
Who Is This 'Public?"
The daily press is very indignant
1T the unreasonableness of the miners
in standing out for higher wages than
any other trade, and not helping the |
country and the operators especially, |
to get back to normally The miners,
however, know that it is not the public,
the visionary public anyway, that the
press is uneasy about, but the profits
IF their masters, and therefore they
are not biting. If the miners enter
.ain a reduction, and even obtain the
Ontario market, it will mean that they
are the means of underwriting of the
wages Of their fellow workers in the
United States, and rather than do so
he miners Of district IS, will stay on
strike until the last loave is.eaten up,
and the operators adopt asld1oral
sensible course. The miners of dis
.rict Is, are assured of support from
he International union in the event
If strike, but apart from that, if
he support is not Forthcoming, the
slogan of the miners is forward to
Emancipation, and no step backward.