New Britain herald., 1926-02-18
800 Workers At Penn. Coal Co.,, Mine Walk Out Few Minutes After Starting Time In Dispute Over Wages.
Feeling Also Reported Elsewhere But in Major ity of Instances Men Resume LabOrs.

Wilkesbarre, Penn, Feb. Is PJ- Trouble marked the re-opening O. the anthracite mines here today after nearly six months of idleness.
 Five hundred workers, employed by the Pennsylvania Coal Company at the number shaft at Pittston. went on strike few minutes after the resumption of operation.
 The dispute arose over wage rates sore spot in the upper hard coal district for years.
 Trouble was also reported at tho | Woodward mine of the Glen Alden Coal Company on the west side but operations were continued.
 A score of company workers werr turned back from various operations shortly after the opening of the mines because of the failure of miners to report on their jobs.
 Thousands Back On Job.
 Scranton, Pa, Feb. IS tPl-Thou- sands of workers throngod around the shafts of the different coal com. panies everywhere in the hard coal fields at a. m., at which hour the cages began lowering their loads of human freight 10 the bowels Of the earth and began the actual produc- ton of anthracite, the first since the strike went into effect September ].
 Some coal was hoisted to the col lier!es and run through the chutes , ct o'clocl. this morning The coal :. was mined by shifts that went to work at the mines last night. 7 The contract under which the in f dustry Is now working was signed . late yesterday in the offices Of tho l Glen Alden Coal company in this city. Six operators and six miners affixed their signatures to the docu- ment, declared by President John l.. Lewis, Of the miners union, to be the greatest contract ever drawn up in the history Of organized labor He told a mass meeting Of miners in Plymouth yesterday that the agree ment involved wages aggregating a , billion and half dollars in the per \ lod of the contract.
 There was no discussion Of the terms of the contract. The miners have declared that the agreement eliminated arbitration. as first offer- ed by the coal company. and that
 the operators understood that il
 both sides work out & reciprocal pro-
 gram of "cooperation and efficiency
 it will mean the adoption of tho check-off system Of having the com r panies collect the union dues. @ The operators have made no pub - lie statement regarding their inter, . pretation Of the contract, If it differ, .f from that made by the miners.
 The question Of "cooperation an, d efficiency" is referred to the board O 5, conciliation to work out. When th, 70 board will meet has not been decid ,f ed,ltwas created by the Roosevel r commission Of 1908.
 70 In the clause calling for Cooper n ation and efficiency" the umpir I cannot be called upon 10 arbitrat h because he is expressly excluded il the present contract.
 . Mine workers who went 10 wor' :, today will not receive any pay 10 Id at least 20 days. They are paid tvic , a month in normal times. Ia With the men back to work. th T union leaders today left for thei
 homes.
 1S Per Cent Normal
 Reports from all over the an
 thracite belt showed that all but
 few of the smaller independent co
 lieries were working with approx K mately 75 per cent of their norma
 forces,
 nd