Shut Down

A two weeks' strike truce in the Maritime coal industry had brought miners and owners no closer. So last week 13,500 members of the United Mine Workers, District 26, walked out of the mines for a second time, and shut down 30% of Canada's coal industry.

William F. Carroll, Government mediator and Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge, had tried hard to reconcile the miners' demands ($1.40 more a day) with the operators' offer of $1 a day, contingent on increased production. Mediator Carroll recommended a pay boost of $1.40 a day, plus more production. The extra 40-c-, he said, must come from an increased Government subsidy since a higher coal price would "interfere most gravely with effective transition to a peacetime economy." But the miners thumbed down the recommendation as a "mere incentive bonus."

With the walkout only a few hours away, Labor Minister Humphrey Mitchell conferred with both sides in Ottawa. More Government assistance, said he, was out. If the Carroll compromise were accepted, the 40-c- would have to come out of a higher coal price. But the operators found that unacceptable. Only skeleton maintenance crews were left underground. Industries and cities dug into the coal which they have been stockpiling. Most coal users had enough on hand for a few weeks. But Nova Scotia cities were already talking about dimouts and other conservation measures.

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