968

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

May 9, 1913.

LABOUR AND WAGES.

North of England.

At several of the Northumberland collieries, including
-Choppington, Hartford and Eltringham, the miners
have been moving foir a re-ballot on the question of
weekly pays. In one or two instances, when a first
ballot was taken, a majority in favour of substituting
weekly for fortnightly pays was shown. The matter
has been brought before the coalowners, and their reply
received by the miners’ representatives is to the effect
that legal opinion shows that either side can claim to
re-ballot on the weekly pays question. This course will
therefore in all probability be followed by the miners’
lodges concerned.

A quarterly meeting of the Durham Coal Trade
Conciliation Board was held on the 2nd inst. at the Coal
Trade Office, Newcastle, for the purpose of fixing the
wages of the miners of the county for the next three
months. At the February meeting of the Board there
was an advance of 3J per cent., bringing the rate up to
50 per cent, above the basis of 1879. Sir Lindsay
Wood, Bart., presided. After a brief meeting, an
advance of 6J per cent, was made, bringing the wages
up to 56| per cent, above the 1879 basis. There has not
been so high an advance since November 1907, when
there was an increase given of 6J. The highest point
ever reached in the percentage was in November 1900,
when the figure stood at 65 per cent, above the basis of
1879.

The balance-sheet of the Northumberland Miners’
Association for the quarter ended March 31, issued this
week, returns the membership at 34,907 adults and
5,159 half-members. The total worth is given at
£33,352 Is. 5Jd. With regard to the strike loan, the
overdraft on the C.W.S. Bank has been reduced to
£11,579 12s. lid.

The dispute between the doctors and the miners of
Northumberland with regard to fees for attending the
.miners’ wives and families has developed into open
warfare. The doctors have discarded the provisional
agreements to serve for 6d. per fortnight, and make an
uncompromising demand for the 9d. paid before the
Insurance Act became operative. At Ashington, new
doctors, who have agreed to accept the lower rate, are
being imported, one already being in practice.

Representatives of the Cumberland coalowners and
of the Winding Enginemen’s and Boiler Firemen’s
Association met in a joint meeting at Workington last
week to discuss questions relating to hours and wages.
The boiler firemen and the enginemen—except the
winders, who already have an eight-hour day—work 12
hours consecutively, and they demand an eight-hour day
and the fixing of minimum wage rates in the several
classes of work. The conference proved unable to arrive
at an agreement. It will be remembered that some time
ago a fruitless attempt was made to form a conciliation
board.

At the quarterly meeting of the Cumberland Miners’
Association last week, Mr. Thomas Cape, financial
secretary, presented a report on the dispute caused by
the strike of surfacemen who are members of the
National Amalgamated Union of Labour. The council
reaffirmed their resolution that such surfacemen must
rejoin the Miners’ Association before they can be allowed
to return to work. It was agreed that the following
demands be presented at a special meeting of the Cum-
berland Conciliation Board:—(1) Extra pay for time
worked after 12.30 p.m. on Saturdays, to 6 a.m. on
Mondays, for both underground and surface workers.
(2) Extra pay for overtime to surface workers who work
overtime during the week. (3) Shorter hours on
Saturdays for surface workers. (4) Regulation of
apprentices’ wages. (5) To fix a uniform wage for the
different classes of surface workers employed at a
colliery. (6) To advance the standard rate of 4s. 3d.
per shift, plus current percentage, to 4s. 9d., plus current
percentage for men working in an abnormal place. (7)
That contractors brought from the face to work shift
work be paid at the rate of 5s. per shift and current
percentage when brought from the face or contract
work they are at to do shift work.

A correspondent says:—“ The incidence of the
Minimum Wage Act is being felt in unexpected ways
by the miners of Northumberland. Already numbers of
more or less philanthropic agencies have been severely
hit, since the management of various collieries declined
to deduct subscriptions towards such institutions from
the workmen’s wages as a protest against the needless
harassing to which they have been subjected. Local
institutes for the workers, nursing associations and
hospitals have in particular been very hard hit, the
institute at Shankhouse having had to be closed, and
others at Bebside, Cambois, Backworth and Shiremoor
being in a position which gives very great concern to
their leading officials; whilst some of the nursing

associations have been obliged to reduce their staff, and
in nearly every case appeals have had to be made for
further public support. In connection with this matter
a singular position has arisen at Backworth. The
manager, Mr. R. F. Spence, has recently been elevated
to the aldermanic bench of the Northumberland County
Council, and the Maude pit hewers set on foot a scheme
to make a presentation to Aid. Spence in honour of the
occasion. But the fact that subscriptions cannot be
deducted at the pay office meant such an addition to the
work of the promoters that it is ‘feared that the
scheme will fall through.

Federated Area.

The Bentinck pit at Kirkby was standing on Monday,
owing, it is stated, to the action of the bank contractor
in sending an unusual number of men back after having
entered into a contract for banking. The men subse-
quently decided to resume work, and that an inter-
view should be sought with the management. An
interview has taken place, with the result that the
contract has been taken from the men, and the banking
is now being done by the day.

The following is the full text of the arrangement
entered into respecting the wages of colliery engine
winders, surface haulage enginemen, firemen, and
stokers in South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire.

Engine Winders :—Those in receipt of wages from
5s. 9d. to 6s. 3d. to be paid 6s. 3d. per day worked; those
in receipt of wages from 5s. up to 5s. 8d^, to be paid
5s. 8d. per day worked ; those in receipt of wages below
5s. per day to be paid 5s. 4d. per day worked.

The hours of work to be determined by Judge
Ruegg’s award, and present customs to remain.

This agreement shall not prejudicially affect men
at present receiving more than 6s. 3d. per day worked.

Surface haulage enginemen to receive an advance of
5 per cent.

Firemen and stokers to receive an advance of 5 per
cent.

This agreement to remain in force for a term of three
years from June 1, 1913.

A joint board to be appointed to settle any disputes
that may arise under this settlement.

At a special council meeting of the South Derbyshire
Miners’ Association, held recently at Woodville, the
secretary read the report of the meeting with the
owners, in which it was stated that the masters had
agreed to adopt a uniform system in the district in
regard to the increase or decrease in the percentage on
the wages of the boys. As there was no satisfactory
wage basis, it had been decided to adopt a basis of age,
and it was arranged that all boys from 14 to 17| years
should receive Id. per day as an equivalent for the 5 per
cent, increase, and 2d. per day to be added from 17J years
upwards. These terms had previously been accepted by
the miners’ representatives. With regard to the cost
of explosives and cost of lamp glasses, which are
to be supplied at net cost under the new Coal Mines
Act, matters had not progressed very much owing
to the different arrangements at the collieries.
Some collieries provided explosives free; others at
a reduced rate, so that the question was difficult to
arrange. Ultimately the agent was advised to single
out any one colliery where he considered an overcharge
was being made, and if necessary take legal action to
get the proper amount assessed. To the miners the
principal item in the report was the question of non-
unionism, and when it was learned that the owners were
not prepared to take action against the non-unionists in
the district considerable dissatisfaction was expressed.
It was stated that the owners would not offer any
opposition to the miners’ association in bringing non-
unionists into line, but they could take no active part in
compelling men to enter the miners’ association. It
was decided that the campaign should be commenced
without further delay, and all boys and men, other than
officials working in the mine, should be compelled to
join the miners’ association.

It was reported at the Derbyshire Miners’ Association,
on Saturday, that the name of Mr. Barnet Kenyon,
J.P., has been before the lodges during the month, and
it was decided to recommend him for adoption as
candidate in succession to Mr. J. Haslam, M.P., who is
not seeking re-election in the Chesterfield Division. The
council confirmed the adoption of Mr. Kenyon, who is
assistant-secretary of the ^association. Mr. Frank Hall
(agent) was instructed to call a county meeting of
representatives of coalowners and representatives of the
men, to deal with the question of the adoption of
automatic weighing machines on pit banks, and also to
discuss the matter of a general holiday on August Bank
holiday. The council agreed to the owners’ resolution
referring the Butterley banksmen’s dispute to the
County Board, and it was decided to ask the Board of
Trade to appoint an independent chairman, if necessary.

Mr. Herbert Smith, the president, at the conclusion,
on the 6th inst., of a meeting of the executive of the
Yorkshire Miners’ Association at Barnsley, announced
the result of the ballot on the question of tendering
notices throughout the county with a view to compelling
the outsiders to join the association, as follows :—

In favour of tendering notices......... 66,299

Against... ............................. 7,784

The membership of the association is now just over
100,000. The matter will come up for decision at the
next meeting of the council. The executive considered
the question of ballots being taken at Whitwood Mere,
Garforth, Shawcross, Glass Houghton, East Ardsley,
Barnsley Main, and Aldwarke No. 2, with a view to
notices being tendered, complaints having been received
of “ men being taken undue advantage of.” The matters
had been submitted to the districts concerned, and in
the case of Garforth No. 2, Shawcross, and Glass
Houghton, the men had decided to allow a ballot
immediately.

At the quarterly meeting of the Sheffield district
council of the National Amalgamated Union of Labour,
held on Saturday, the secretary (Mr. A. J. Bailey)
reported that the Yorkshire Miners’ Association had
decided to ballot the whole of Yorkshire to test the
feeling of the county on the subject of recognition of
surfacemen’s organisation in West Yorkshire. In
South Yorkshire the minimum wage is already in
operation, and the “ topmen ” of the west are deter-
mined to strike if need be to secure a similar advantage.
Mr. Bailey said that for 18 months the Yorkshire
Miners’ Association and six other associations had been
making strenuous efforts to secure a meeting with the
owners. Although the owners had offered to meet the
different associations individually, they had absolutely
refused to be a party to collective bargaining. The
council decided to recommend their members to ballot
conjointly with the miners with a view to forcing the
issue. It was also decided unanimously to take a vote
as to action against non-union men in the more contented
area of South Yorkshire. The secretary reported that
the dispute between surfacemen and owners at Hoyland
Silkstone Colliery was not yet settled.

The settlement of the dispute at the Astley and
Tyldesley Collieries, and the probable early settlement
of the dispute at the Abram Colliery, Wigan, were
reported at an executive meeting of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Miners’ Federation, held at Salford, on
Saturday. Conferences had been held during the week
between the employers and the local officials of the
Miners’ Federation, with the result that in the case of
the Astley and Tyldesley coalfield, the old system of
working is to be revised. The men, it was stated, would
clutch up or wind from the counter or low level, and
beyond that the employers would find and pay for the
work. At the Abram Colliery notices were due to expire
on Tuesday, the non-unionist question being the cause
of the trouble. In this case arrangements have been
made with the management, under which steps will be
taken to get the men who are outside the union to join.
To enable a settlement to be reached by this means, the
notices have been postponed for a week.

The dispute in regard to the wages of surface workers
—other than those engaged in manipulating coal—at
the Stanton Iron Company’s Teversal and Silver Hill
collieries and the Blackwell Company’s Sutton Colliery
was considered at a conference held at Nottingham on
Friday, May 2, between representatives of the Midland
Counties Colliery Owners’ Association and the Notts
Miners’ Association. After consideration of the pro-
posed scale of wages submitted by the workers’ repre-
sentatives, the owners’ representatives undertook to lay
the same before their association, and a further meeting
is to be arranged later on.

Scotland.

The Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board have held
several meetings recently with a view to drawing up a
new agreement for the regulation of the wages of miners
in the Scottish coalfields. An adjourned meeting of the
Board was held on the 5th inst. for the same purpose in
the North British Station Hotel, Glasgow. Mr. Adam
Nimmo presided and Mr. Robert Smillie was vice-
chairman. After discussing the matter for a short time,
the employers and the representatives of the men were
unable to come to an understanding, and the meeting
terminated. The negotiations in connection with the
drafting of a new wages agreement have therefore been
broken off in the meantime.

A dispute affecting the engine-keepers employed at
the Cadzow Colliery, Hamilton, has been settled.

On Saturday afternoon a new miners’ hall, built close to
Fence Houses station by the members of the Lambton D Pit
Lodge of the Durham Miners’ Association, assisted by the
Lambton and Hetton Collieries Company, was opened.