Militant/Terry Coggan

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Coal miners at seven mines in New Zealand voted July 19 to approve a new contract with a national employment agreement that covers all the mines—a key union demand. Some 240 miners and maintenance workers—members of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union—at three mines had been locked out during the contract battle.

The two-year contract includes a 5 percent wage rise in the first year and smaller raises and lump-sum payments in the second. The bosses had pressed for a three-year deal with smaller wage increases, and on July 1 suspended miners at the Stockton mine on the South Island’s West Coast, and the Huntly East and Rotowaru mines, after the union implemented load-out bans at the three sites.

—TERRY COGGAN  
 
 
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