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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
surplus workers working on a rotation basis. Left and right wing workers combined to demand the payment of a food allowance of $1.50 a day to those who were not working. The management made counter proposals to increase time worked on each shift from 8 to 11 hours, which was the practice when the mill first started, with redundant workers either being paid off or kept on rotation. This was rejected by the workers who considered it a retrograde step. Before further negotiations could take place, confusion caused inside the mill by the inter-mixing of yarn of various counts, probably deliberately, forced the management to suspend operations on 4th September. The supply of food was continued for a few days, but was finally stopped. The workers of both left and right wing factions managed to arouse considerable support from other trade unions and from other organizations. Attempts were made by first one faction and then the other to approach the management for further negotiation. Finally, one month after the suspension, the management agreed to resume work on the original eight- hour shift basis and to pay a small subsidy to cover the cost of food consumed by the workers during the initial stages of the dispute.
Lin Ma Hang Mines. Heavy rains in June destroyed the access road to this lead mine and curtailed operations. When the Wing Lee Construction Co., which was engaged in the repair of the road, offered a higher wage to its workers than that paid by the mine, it attracted a considerable number of miners. The mine manager protested to the construction company, which dismissed the men concerned. These men, feeling unjustly treated, brought out the remainder of the men at the mine on strike. After a series of meetings at which no agreement could be reached the District Commissioner, New Territories, personally intervened and a number of miners resumed work on a piece-rate basis under the direction of the local village elder. Relations between the management and the miners, however, remained uneasy at the end of the
year.