1879
Demand for Reduction—Strike of 1879—Dual Arbitration—Renewal of Sliding Scale
The Board was just formed when it was called upon to face one of the most serious crises in our history. At the Council meeting held on December 7th, 1878, it was decided that the average wages in the county should be taken, and that the formation of another scale should be remitted to the Committee, with power to renew it. The Committee were not satisfied with that indefinite resolution, and asked for more explicit instructions. There were certain alterations required, and therefore they asked for "full and uncontrolled power." They knew that in adopting that course they would risk a large amount of unpleasantness, but they were willing to risk it if they were assured of the confidence of the majority of the members. Further, they asked that the retiring members of the Committee should be allowed to remain in office until the scale was arranged and the crisis over. These requests as to power and suggestion as to the Committee were both accepted. The formation of the Federation Board, however, somewhat altered, and at first complicated, the situation, for the result was a complex and dual authority. The Board was not then, as now, the sole conductor of the wages disputes, but the various Committees acted collaterally, the Miners' Committee taking the leading part in the negotiations. The demands made by the employers were handed to the Miners' Committee on February 4th. The conditions were as under:
(1) That a reduction of 20 per cent. on present underground wages is a condition precedent to the re-establishment of a sliding scale.
(2) That a reduction of 12½ per cent. should be made in surface labour, but so that the wages of able-bodied men be not brought below 2s. 6d. per day.
(3) In the event of a scale being established, it shall have no limit upward or downward, and shall be subject to termination on 12 months' notice.
The Committee could not grant the request, but at once made an offer of seven and a half per cent., to take effect on Monday, the 10th, or they would submit the entire matter to arbitration. These offers were refused by the owners, and as a consequence the meeting was adjourned until the 20th. The Committee called a Council for the 15th of February. On the 7th the Federation Board met, and passed the following resolution:—
This Board feels that the position of the county in reference to wages is anomalous. The owners having as a body demanded a reduction of wages, and as such reduction includes all classes of labour in connection with collieries, we recommend that each Association call a Council meeting to discuss the advisability of adjusting a sliding scale for the regulation of wages, consistent with all our interests.
That the Secretary write and ask that at the meeting on the 20th inst. all the four Associations be represented.
The Miners' Council decided against the seven and a half per cent., but by the following resolution offered arbitration:—
"That having heard the report of the Committee on their interview with the owners on the reduction now asked by the latter, this meeting is of opinion that the best means of settling the difficulty is, to refer it to open arbitration as heretofore."
The owners refused to meet the Federation Board as a whole, and as a consequence the Miners' Committee met them on the 20th, in keeping with the Board Minute, on February 18th. At that meeting the owners modified their demand.
OWNERS' MODIFIED OFFER
February 22nd, 1879.
"1. That a reduction of 10 per cent. in underground, and 7½ per cent. in surface labour, be brought into operation in the first pay beginning March next.
2. That the additional 10 per cent. in underground, and 5 per cent. in surface labour, claimed by the owners in their Minute of January 11th, be referred to arbitration in the following manner, viz.:—
Representatives of the two Associations to meet within the first week of March, and if they can agree on a sole arbitrator, the matter to be forthwith referred to him; and if they cannot so agree, each side to appoint an arbitrator, which two arbitrators shall forthwith appoint an umpire, and if they fail to do so by March 15th, such umpire shall, on the application of either arbitrator, be appointed by Mr Meynell, County Court Judge of Durham.
In the event of there being two arbitrators and an umpire, they shall sit together to hear the case; and the award shall take effect in the first pay in April.
3. The expediency of re-establishing a sliding scale, to be left for consideration after the award has been given."
Representatives of the two Associations to meet within the first week of March, and if they can agree on a sole arbitrator, the matter to be forthwith referred to him; and if they cannot so agree, each side to appoint an arbitrator, which two arbitrators shall forthwith appoint an umpire, and if they fail to do so by March 15th, such umpire shall, on the application of either arbitrator, be appointed by Mr Meynell, County Court Judge of Durham.
In the event of there being two arbitrators and an umpire, they shall sit together to hear the case; and the award shall take effect in the first pay in April.
This was submitted to the Federation Board, who met the modification by the following:—
FEDERATION BOARD'S OFFER
March 6th, 1879.
1st. To offer the owners the 10 per cent. for underground workmen, and 7½ per cent. for bank workmen as a settlement of the whole question.
2nd. To offer them 7½ per cent. from underground, and 6 per cent. from above-bank workmen, and to refer any further claim they might make to arbitration.
The Miners' Committee supported the Board, and did this in a circular which contained some very plain and urgent statements.
"At best, the lookout is but a gloomy one, and we must try to bridge over the difficulty as best we can, and if possible, without the pits being stopped. We have no wish to descant on the generally depressed condition of trade, or the evil effects producible by a large surplus number of men. At the present time, both these things are operating amongst us, and the owners know this, and seem determined to use them in this crisis. Looking at the general condition of things, we would very strongly advise you to adopt one of the suggestions contained in this circular. They are the best we can get at the present time, and a refusal of one of the methods suggested cannot result in better terms for the great body of our members. You must remember that these are times when prudent men do the best, and get the most they can without running all the risks which always attend a stoppage of the pits when trade is paralysed and men both suffering and disorganised."
Immediately these offers were made known there arose a fierce agitation in the county, and on every hand mass meetings were held protesting against the terms. As is the case in matters of this kind, orators vehement if not polished sprang up from every quarter, whose stock-in-trade consisted of foul epithets which they hurled at the Committee and Federation Board. So desperate was the situation that certain of the Committee were in fear, and came into public view as little as possible. A personal incident may be excused here. A mass meeting was held on the sands in Durham. The writer, as chairman of the Wheatley Hill Lodge, marched to it. The first words heard were: "There's one of the——; let us put him in the river." The crowd surged and rocked. What the consequence might have been it is hard to tell, but just when the feeling ran highest and he was most in danger a man was knocked back over on to a drum which stood end up, and it went off with a loud report, and the cry was: "They are firing guns." In a moment a panic seized the people, and, as is recorded of the battle of Stanhope over the moor hen, "those who ran fastest got soonest out of town." There was a low wall (low on one side, high on the other) over which hundreds fell head foremost, and a good, kind lady who had come from Wheatley Hill to take care of her husband (the man whose presence was the cause of all the hubbub) was carried away by the crowd, and was so rushed along by the panic-stricken stream of humanity that she was with twenty others landed in a stable, the door of which stood invitingly open like a city of refuge. And so the result was the meeting was disturbed, and the culprit, one of the malodorous Committee, was left unhurt, Providence in the shape of a drum being the means of saving him.
Apart from the ludicrous incident of the bursting drum the feeling manifested towards the Committee there was only on a par with that found everywhere throughout the county. If one of those at the head of affairs appeared in the street and passed a group of men insult was rampant—slander, being cowardly, feels safe in a crowd. Still the Committee were not to be driven from their task. They regretted the action of the employers in refusing open arbitration, and who, knowing the condition of the Union, were determined to force their full demand; and they were sorry for the opposition of their members, but they knew they were moved by sheer desperation, and played upon by designing men who cared more for popularity, even if it were fleeting, than the welfare of the Union, and who would not hesitate to bring ruin if perchance small gain would come to them from it.
The Committee prepared for the struggle which they saw was inevitable if the employers did not move from the position they had taken up. Knowing this they set themselves to ascertain the true state of affairs in the county. They took the actual average of the hewers and reductions which at each colliery had been suffered at Joint Committee, or had been forced upon them since March 1877, with the hewing prices. It was found that while there was a nominal minimum wage of 4s. 8½d. where the drawing hours were ten, 4s. 10½d. where the hours were ten and a half, and 5s. 0½d. where the eleven hours prevailed, the actual average of the hewers throughout the entire county was only 4s. 6¾d. It was therefore about 5d. per day or seven per cent. below the theoretical minimum. This is worth considering when we are desirous of establishing it again. It may work in the summer of trade, but not in the winter of depression.
This state of things was brought about as the result of local reductions. There were well-known instances where whole collieries of men petitioned the Executive Committee to be allowed to work at twenty per cent. below the minimum wage. In the final arbitration of 1879, before Lord Derby, the employers admitted the actual average was only 4s. 6¾d. This they had taken just prior to the strike. They likewise stated in their case that many and considerable reductions were privately agreed to, and particularly where the owners possessed little capital or worked inferior or costly seams. The average taken by the Committee harmonised with the 4s. 6¾d.
Quotation from Owners' Case
34. At 43 separate pits arrangements for abatements of wages were made in the working of 65 different seams, varying from 2½ per cent. to 20 per cent. and upwards, and this state of things continued up to the close of the period to which the sliding scale applied, when negotiations for a general reduction of wages were entered into by the two Associations which eventually ended in the strike.
35. These local arrangements, as we have stated, were private, and between the individual worker owner and his workmen, and without the official knowledge of the Owners' Association.
It is believed that, if not in every case, certainly very many of the private agreements had the approval of the Miners' Executive, for some of these negotiations were conducted personally by their staff, who had the strong motive in thus keeping their constituents employed at the best wages they could obtain for them, of saving the Union funds from supporting every man, who, under the rules of the Association, was entitled to support when thrown out of employment.
The Committee in their reply before Lord Derby acknowledged that these reductions took place, but to strengthen their case they charged the whole blame on the employers. They said:
Sometimes this was done by threatening to stop the pits and sometimes by the more reprehensible practice of dismissing portions of men, in proof of which we can testify that men were personally canvassed, and if not found pliable were threatened and coerced. That reductions took place, and, as the owners state, in some cases they amounted to 20 per cent., is correct, thus making the wages of numerous bodies of hewers (in place of reaching the owners asserted 4s. 8d. or 5s. per day) fall far below even 4s. per day and proving what we have all along stated, that the average wages of the best paid class of men in the county, viz.—the hewers, are at least 10 per cent. and even more below the rate named by the owners. This proves the inability of our men to suffer any further reduction.
In their rejoinder the employers returned to the subject. They asserted that for two years the great bulk of the owners had kept faith with the workmen, at a loss to themselves when the selling price fell below the scale. In the cases where arrangements had been made they had been assisted and concurred in by the Miners' Executive. "We assert and challenge contradiction that the Executive were parties, if not to every abatement of wage in 1878-79, most certainly they were parties to many, and hence the folly of accusing the owners of conniving at the reductions when the Executive were straining every nerve to assist them, with the object, as we again assert, of saving their Union funds."
In addition to the general poverty of the workmen through low wages and slack work the Committee had to face a serious disorganisation. At some very large collieries the numbers had decreased very much. This fact was as well known to the owners as the Committee, for it was brought out very prominently at the meeting with the employers, when the Committee made the offer of ten and seven and a half per cent. as a full settlement. One of the employers, urging the acceptance of their claim, said: "There are a large number of men outside the Union, and these are not with you. The logic of events will decide the issue." The reply of one of the Executive was: "You mean the logic of circumstances, the logic of the cupboard. You have a good ally in our poverty."
Then there was a sadly depleted fund, which in itself was sufficient to fill them with pessimism, for every man deserving of being at the head of Trade Unions is bound to feel when faced by these circumstances—not in a cowardly manner, but a feeling evolved out of the dark background of poverty and hunger, not of men, but of the children. There was only £22,688 in property and bank. From this was to be deducted £4861 as money invested in the Industrial Bank and Houghton and Shotton Workmen's Hall, which was not available for strike purposes; therefore the war chest was very small, especially to enter upon a struggle such as lay before them.
In the face of these adverse circumstances—owners persistent in their demands, wages very low, partial disorganisation, small resources, and an angry people—the Committee stood firm. Their attitude was unflinching, and their advice fearless and clear, as witness the following quotation from a circular:—
The time has now come when there must be unmistakably plain speaking. It is now clear, beyond a doubt, that if you persist in your adherence to open arbitration alone, the owners will allow the sliding scale to run out without further interference or negotiation and at the end of that time they will take all that they can get, either along the whole line or piecemeal, whichever course may best suit their purpose, by enabling them to punish you by lowering wages and reintroducing pernicious practices. To attempt to fight at the present time without offering the terms which we shall further on advise you to offer, would be suicidal. Look around you, and what do you find? On every hand you can count idle men by hundreds and thousands. Many of these men have been idle for weeks and months. All their means have long since been spent, and they are waiting for work, begging for work, and cannot find it. We have spent in two years over strikes amongst our own members, at large and small collieries, nearly one hundred thousand pounds and there is not a single strike, either of large or small dimensions, where we have not signally failed.
The offer mentioned in the above was a ten per cent. off underground men and seven and a half per cent. off surface men as a final settlement, or seven and a half per cent. off underground wages and six per cent. off surface wages, and any further claim referred to open arbitration. The circular was submitted to a Council, and refused, but Mr Crawford was instructed to offer open arbitration on the whole question. This was done by telegram:
To T. W. Bunning, Coal Trade Hall, Newcastle.
Open arbitration having for many years been resorted to by your Association and ours in the settlement of wages questions, our members again wish to have recourse to it in the settlement of your present demand for a further reduction of wages.
On the same day a reply was received:
W. Crawford, 16 North Road, Durham.
The following resolution was passed by a full meeting of the Employers' Association before the receipt of your telegram and has since been unanimously confirmed—At a meeting of this body held to-day arrangements were made for giving notice to expire on April 5th to all men whose wages have been hitherto regulated by the Durham Miners' sliding scale, that from that date underground wages will be reduced fifteen and surface wages ten per cent.
It will be seen the offer of the owners confines it to the miners, as they alone were in the scale. This modification of demand and threat of notice was sent out in a circular on the 17th of March. They reviewed the whole situation both at home and in other counties. At home, within the previous six days, four collieries had received notice for depression of trade. In South Wales heavy reductions had taken place. In Scotland nearly the whole of the notices had been served for further reductions, while wages were as low as 2s. 6d. per day. In other parts of the country a similar state of things existed. In stating these matters there was no attempt to terrify. It was a simple statement of facts. It would require the pen of a master to place before them a true picture of "all the comparative and positive destitution to be found in the houses of thousands of men at the present time. With this dreadfully adverse condition of things is it possible to go into a struggle with a body of men, strong in their own cause, determined to fight, and who have every possible advantage on their side? To do so can only end in results the most damaging to our organisation and ruinous to ourselves and families. True valour is not shown in reckless and heedless action, but by waiting until a foe can be met on at least equal terms." It was no use offering arbitration, for the owners had persistently refused that. They urged the whole matter should be left in the hands of somebody chosen by themselves to make the best settlement they could. The voting at the Council was taken on the two questions: the Committee's suggestion or arbitration. The result was 118 for the former and 155 for the latter—being a majority of 37 for open arbitration on the whole question.
It will be obvious that the tendency of the owners' offer only being made to the miners would be to disintegrate. It would not be right to say such was the intention, yet that was assuredly the bias. The justification lies in this, the miners were the only parties to the scale at its formation. None of the other sections were parties to it, and therefore the negotiations only applied to them. The terms of the requests were very embracive: they are "underground wages" and "surface wages." This is certain, that no division took place. The action, right or wrong, was as solid as could be expected.
The voting on the questions, Committee suggestion or arbitration, did not give a satisfactory decision, and a second ballot was taken on the questions: "Strike" or "Owners' terms," with a result that the workmen refused the terms. The strike was entered upon, the notices terminating on 5th April. Some of the managers threatened to withhold the wages until the houses were vacant, and it was feared that this might provoke disturbance. Notice was sent out by the Committee, in which the action of such managers was condemned as "not only an illegal, but also an inhuman act." "But whatever course they may adopt, either in this or any other matter, be very careful not to be guilty of any breach of the law. Let nothing induce you to pursue a course which at all times is to be deplored, but which just now would be aggravated into the most heinous of crimes." As a result the conduct during the strike was most commendable, the only persons suffering being the Committee and Federation Board.
There were certain collieries to whom notice was not given, and the Committee felt it necessary to ask whether these should continue working or give in their notices. The returns of the voting were 224 for stopping the whole of the collieries and only 7 for working on. They were, therefore, ordered to give in their notices, and instructions were sent out as to the mode of procedure. That vote was taken on April 22nd, but on the 30th at a special Council meeting it was qualified by the following resolution:—
"This meeting deems it highly necessary that all those firms ought to be allowed to work their pits who will agree to arbitration as a settlement of their difficulties, or who will agree to a continuation of present prices without being affected by any county change."
An offer was made to the enginemen, which their representative brought before the Federation Board. At the meeting on April 21st they were advised "to only take such a reduction as the sliding scale would have warranted them in asking, had it been operative downwards as well as upwards. Should this be refused by the owners, this board would further recommend the enginemen, mechanics and cokemen who are yet employed to give in their notices and thus legally terminate their agreement."
The Board met again on the 28th of April, when the enginemen reported a change in their position, and the following resolution was passed:—
This meeting has heard with satisfaction that the owners on Saturday last offered the enginemen open arbitration in the settlement of their present wages difficulty. But it cannot but express its surprise at the conduct of the owners in so determinedly refusing to adopt the same principle in the settlement of the wages difficulty now existing between the miners and them. If the adoption of arbitration in the enginemen's case would have been a right and equitable way of settling, it surely must be right also in the case of the miners.
So the strike proceeded. The Committee were formed into a Strike Committee, with full power to manage it. They were called upon to defend themselves in the press. Every effort was made to get help from other districts. On the 4th of May a communication was received from the owners.
copy of a resolution unanimously passed at a meeting of the durham coal owners' association, May 3rd, 1879
The Durham Coal Owners' Association recognising
(1) That the public, as well as private interests, so seriously prejudiced by the strike, render it a duty to adopt a course most likely to bring about a settlement;
(2) That the proposition for each side appointing a Committee with the full powers seems to have met with general approval;
(3) That such Committee would undoubtedly provide the means by which difficult negotiations can be most successfully conducted;
Resolves:
That a Committee of 14 members of this Association be and are hereby appointed to meet a similar Committee, if such should be appointed by the Miners' Association, with full power to settle the matter at issue.
That the foregoing Resolution be communicated to the Miners' Association, and they be invited to adopt a similar course.
The Committee in response to that Resolution met the Owners' Committee on Saturday, the 10th of May, but failed to come to any agreement, and the meeting was adjourned until the 14th. The county was informed of the failure, and told to remain as they were until they heard from the Committee again. Mr Forman and Mr Crawford met Mr L. Wood and Mr D. Dale on the 14th. No settlement was come to as to amount of reduction, but it was arranged there should be a pro tem. arbitration, with Mr Bradshaw, County Court Judge, as umpire. The arrangement was that there should be an arbitration to say how the collieries should commence, and a second case after work was resumed to decide what further reduction should be granted. The preliminary case was heard on May 15th, and Judge Bradshaw, after passing in review the various stages of the dispute, decided "that there should be an absolute reduction in wages of 8¾ per cent. on underground and of 6¾ per cent. on surface labour, to take effect from that date, and the question whether any further reduction should be made be left to a future arbitration."
AWARD
In the matter of disputes relating to wages between the coal owners, members of the Durham Coal Owners' Association, and their workmen, members of the Durham Miners' Association:
Whereas the owners claimed a considerable reduction of wages, to take effect from the fifth day of April last, and the miners refusing to accept such reductions the collieries in the county of Durham have for some time been, and still are idle.
And whereas, with a view of settling the matter in difference between them, the Owners' Association appointed a Committee of 14 persons, and the Miners' Committee appointed a Committee of like number, with full power to determine the question at issue.
And whereas, after long negotiations, the Owners' Committee deputed to Messrs Lindsay Wood and David Dale, and the Miners' Committee deputed to Messrs William Crawford and John Forman, their respective powers.
And whereas, the said Lindsay Wood, David Dale, William Crawford, and John Forman having applied to me, the undersigned, for my advice and decision in the premises, and have laid before me the following statements, which are admitted by the parties on both sides, namely:—
1. That on February 20th last, the owners offered to accept an absolute reduction in wages of 10 per cent. on underground, and 7½ per cent. on surface labour, and to leave to arbitration the question whether any, and what further reduction should be made.
2. That on April 2nd last, the Miners' Association offered to concede an absolute reduction in wages of 7½ per cent. on underground, and 6 per cent. on surface labour, and to leave to arbitration the question, whether any, and what further reduction should be made.
3. That on the 10th inst., the Owners' Committee offered to accept an absolute reduction in wages of 8¾ per cent. on underground and 6¾ per cent. on surface labour, and to leave to arbitration the question, whether any, and what further reduction should be made.
4. That on the 10th inst., the Miners' Committee offered to concede an absolute reduction in wages of 6¼ per cent. on underground, and 5 per cent. on surface labour, and to leave to arbitration whether any, and what further reduction should be made.
Now, I, the undersigned, having duly weighed and considered the foregoing statement, and what has been alleged before me by the respective parties, Do Decide and Award, that there be an absolute reduction in wages of 8¾ per cent. on underground, and of 6¾ per cent. on surface labour, to take effect from the date of these presents; and the question, whether any, and what further reduction should be made, be left to future arbitration.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in duplicate, this fifteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
Thos. Bradshaw.
Then there arose a dispute as to whether it were competent for the men to show cause before the future arbitrator why there should be a rebatement of the eight and three quarters and six and three quarters per cent. It was again referred to the umpire. He decided that the contention of the workmen's representatives could not be sustained. The employers accepted his decision as an instalment of their claim, and to get the pits to work, but they in no way waived or relinquished their right to refer to arbitration, whether or not they were entitled to any, and if any, what further reduction over and above the absolute reduction by his award.
That definition the Committee accepted. Immediately the spirit of revolt ran through the county, and for a few days some lodges objected to resume work. Whenever the Executive appeared they were greeted with cries of "Judge Bradshaw" and "Eight and three quarters." Gradually the resumption of work became universal, and on the 22nd of July the arbitration was opened, with Lord Derby as umpire, in 12 Great George Street, London. Mr W. Armstrong and Mr D. Dale were arbitrators for the employers, with Mr L. Jones and Mr W. Crawford for the workmen. Advocates for the owners were H. T. Morton, L. Wood, and W. T. Bunning; for the employees J. Forman, N. Wilkinson, and W. H. Patterson. The names of the Executive Committee were:
| W. Johnson. | W. Robinson. |
| G. Newton. | W. Longstaff. |
| J. Scott. | G. Parker. |
| J. Bell. | W. Gordon. |
| W. R. Fairley. | J. Wilson. |
There were two days' sittings, and on the 28th of July Lord Derby gave his award. He said it was agreed that the award should apply to all underground and surface men, except enginemen, firemen, joiners, smiths, masons, labourers, and cokemen. He awarded a reduction of one and a quarter per cent. in the present rate of wages paid to underground and surface men affected by his award.
Thus ended a stoppage of work—it is a misnomer to call it a strike—which should never have taken place. The men from the first were ready to appeal to reason, and the final decision proved the Executive Committee right in their offer. There is a closer spirit abroad now. The county has been in an atmosphere of amicability. May that better state take full possession and the day of strikes be gone for ever.
The strike ended, the Committee set themselves to work to repair the broken places and put the Association on to a solid foundation again. They found themselves financially insolvent and shattered numerically. They were unable to meet the benefits provided by rule, and there was a great cry of distress from those who were out of work owing to depression of trade. A return was taken as to a levy to meet the latter class, but it was very unsatisfactory, not one half of the votes being cast, and the suggestions included levies varying from 2d. up to 1s. They therefore decided to call a special Council, warning the members that these people could not be paid from the General Fund. They had been compelled to pay those who were on the funds short allowance. The position was so desperate that "either the contributions must be increased or the benefits reduced," and at the Council the two questions were—first, the general question of contributions and outlay; second, the men idle from depression: how to raise money for their support and how much should they be paid? The Council acting on the advice of the Committee decided that the benefits for strike, lockout, and breakage should be 6s. and 3s. per week for members and half members respectively, and that these payments should only be paid for six months, when they should cease without appeal, the sacrificed allowance being reduced to 10s. per week without a reduction in time.
Their next difficulty was the unconstitutional district meetings which were held. At these the wildest statements were made, and as a consequence the minds of the members (as will always be the case when these meetings are in vogue) became unsettled, and disunion followed. Amid the natural difficulties of the situation the Committee were called upon to defend themselves. A circular was sent out which, after renewing the argument of the promoters of the meetings, said:
"If you determine to let those men go on, doing their endeavours to undermine your Association, then be prepared to accept with that choice all the evil consequences which must arise therefrom. These are the men who would "rather rule in hell than serve in heaven!" They have yet to learn the most important of all attainments—viz. how to rule themselves, before presuming to guide the thousands of people in this county. If complaints are to be made, let them be made regularly and right. If reformations are needed, let them be sought in keeping with the constitution."
History is apt to repeat itself in this mode of procedure as in others. Nothing but evil can result. We are not in Russia; we are a democracy, and have a free tribunal.
There were other four questions calling for arrangement: the fixing of the county average; the arranging for official recognition and the operation of the Federation Board; the rearrangement of the sliding scale; and the resumption of the Joint Committee. A dispute as to the average for hewers arose in reference to the figures from which the eight and three quarters per cent. and one and a quarter per cent. should be taken. The employers contended they should be deducted from the actual wage of the county for the three pays prior to the strike, which was found to be 4s. 6¾d. The Committee contended they should be deducted from the nominal minimum wage of 5s. 0½d. for the eleven-hour pits and 4s. 8½d. for the ten-hour pits. These were the wages from which the reductions were sought. If they were averaged as per the number of pits at each it worked out at 4s. 11d. It was therefore obvious that there would be a great difference in the result. If the two reductions were taken from the 4s. 11d. the average would be 4s. 5.16d.; if from the 4s. 6¾d. it would be 4s. 1.33d., or 3.83d. of a difference. It was finally agreed that the average for hewers should be 4s. 5d. for the eleven and 4s. 2d. for the ten hour pits.
The official recognition of the Federation Board was at first objected to by the employers. At a meeting of the Board held on the 23rd of September the details of the sliding scale were discussed. They were in doubt as to whether the owners would discuss it with them, or the miners alone. Eventually a joint meeting was held, and the second sliding scale was arranged on October 11th. The date of its commencement was fixed for December.
SLIDING SCALE, 1879
| When the Net Average Selling Price of Coal | There shall be made the following percentage additionsto, or deductions from, the now prevailing tonnage rates and wages | ||
| Reaches | But does not reach | Additions | Deductions |
| s. d. | s. d. | ||
| 4 2 | 4 6 | None | None |
| 4 6 | 4 10 | 2½ per cent. | " |
| 4 10 | 5 2 | 5 " | " |
| 5 2 | 5 6 | 7½ " | " |
| 5 6 | 5 10 | 10 " | " |
| 5 10 | 6 2 | 15 " | " |
| 6 2 | 6 6 | 17½ " | " |
| 6 6 | 6 10 | 20 " | " |
And so on upwards, 2½ per cent. for each 4d.; the 5 per cent. variation for the 4d. range in price between 5s. 10d. and 6s. 2d. being limited to that special range.
| s. d. | s. d. | Deductions. |
| 3 10 | 4 2 | 2½ per cent. |
| 3 6 | 3 10 | " |
And so on downwards.
The difference between this and the previous one consists in the lessened grades. The 8d. grade was reduced to 4d. for two and a half per cent. change in underground wages and two per cent. in surface wages. Another variation was the giving up of the minimum wage. All parties were agreed on this point, as all had felt the evil arising from the operation of it during the two years of its existence. Long may it be before such another condition arises here, for the days were dark indeed; as witness the first ascertainment, which showed the average selling price of coal to be 4s. 3.3d. per ton. The accountants were, as now (1906), E. Spark, and Monkhouse, Goddard & Co.
The Joint Committee was suspended at the commencement of the strike on April 5th, and did not resume its sittings until December 12th. During the time intervening the rules were revised. A special Committee (which might be called an interregnum Committee) met, and transacted business of the same nature as that within the purview of the Joint Committee.
Before leaving the strike and the consequences it may be of interest to quote from Mr Crawford's first monthly circular his estimate of it.
The strike which took place in the months of April and May last will ever remain an epoch in the history of the Association. A more complete success never took place. At its beginning, strong doubts were expressed and great fears entertained as to what would be the ultimate consequences of such a step.
I was amongst those who doubted, but did not despair, and the end more than justified the expectations of the most sanguine. If we take the entire history of trade disputes, it will be found that not one ever commanded so much public sympathy. We had justice and right on our sides, and we took the only wise course—viz. to let the public know it. We deplore strikes as much as anyone can do, but there are times when they become necessary and such a climax had we arrived at in April 1879. Numbers of men who were outside our Association then came forward and joined with us and fought the battle side by side. There never was a more complete stoppage of work or one which to the workmen, at least, ended more satisfactorily.
We may fittingly close the year by a reference to the strong tide of emigration that was running. A miners' conference to consider a scheme to assist prospective emigrants and draw up a code of rules was called in Manchester in November. Such a scheme was formulated and the rules suggested, but nothing ever came of it. In connection with this large volume of emigration from the mining districts Mr Crawford took a trip to America in one of the Inman liners, and wrote an account of it in a pamphlet entitled "In the Steerage." A report was circulated in the press describing what purported to be the foul condition of the accommodation provided for the third-class passengers. With a desire to ascertain the truth or otherwise of these statements Mr Crawford went to New York in one of the Inman boats, and completely exposed the untruthfulness of it, and did a great deal towards easing the minds of many of the miners who were preparing for leaving the country.