A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
SECRET
APPENDIX
(The following summary is based on a long report from the Public Relations Branch, St. Andrew's House, Edinburgh.)
SCOTTISH MINERS AND THE PRESENT EMERGENCY
General Situation
The need for more coal :- After the fall of France, the coal mining industry lost a substantial part of its labour force - partly to the Services and partly to munitions industries. The decline in coal production has been relatively greater since these workers included a high proportion of productive workers as against on-cost (maintenance) workers. The result is that there is now a problem of production. Increasing demands from the home market, particularly the expanding munitions industries, have more than compensated for the loss of most of the overseas markets.
The success of the present production drive depends largely upon the active collaboration of the miners. At first sight the prospects of this collaboration are not bright. Absenteeism in Scotland has increased from just under 4 in 1939 to over 5. Production per man-shift has dropped considerably, and this decline in output, as in the last war, seems to be progressive.
The object of this report is to enquire into the main factors in the decline in production, with particular reference to the miners' attitude to the war and to the present emergency. Some suggestions are made at the end of this report for measures to improve the situation.
Factors in decline in production .
Loss of manpower . The workers lost to the Forces and to the munitions industries are probably the best and most hardworking men in the industry: the younger men who went into the Army, either those who were Territorials or Naval Reservists, or those others who secured dismissal by fair or foul methods and then volunteered for the services, and the older men who went into munitions or other work.
Many of the older miners, hard and steady workers with families, went over to munitions work in the slack period after June 1940. They were losing one or more shifts a week, and decided that the industry could not afford to keep them. Even to-day, as the figures show, the higher paid munitions industries are attracting miners away. They find that even although they work many more hours over-time the work is lighter and better paid than in the mines.
Mechanisation:- In Scotland the majority of mines are mechanised to a greater degree than those in England and Wales. A small increase in absenteeism, or the loss of one or two key workers will, therefore, affect production seriously, and will cut down production for the whole shift, thereby cutting down the average output per man-shift.
Another factor which affects production is the shortage of wagons. It is no longer practicable to stock coal at the pithead, as the storage space is generally full of duff (waste). When there are no wagons at the pithead, therefore, this involves a stoppage of work underground. The shortage of wagons is said to be now less serious than it was from New Year until Easter, but there are difficulties of supply or haulage ropes, pit props, etc.
Friction between men and managements:- There is probably more friction between workers and employers in the coal industry than in any other heavy industry. “Some of my best and most reasonable Managers” says a General Manager, “are in despair about the obstructive attitude of the men”. On the other hand, miners and miners' leaders say that the owners, always arbitrary, have become even more arbitrary since the outbreak of war.
This lack of good industrial relations is exemplified in two major issues: non-Unionism and A.R.P. arrangements.
Non-Unionism in the mines:- Attempts to set up a system of national and district arbitration in Scotland have been held up for over a year by reluctance on both sides. We understand that steps are now being taken to expedite those arrangements. But a major condition put forward by the miners is that the owners should co-operate with the unions in abolishing non-unionism among mineworkers.
At a meeting in Glasgow in March, 1941, the Secretary of Mines pressed both sides to accept an agreement that the owners on the one hand should urge all their workers to join the approved Miners' Union, and that the men on their side should agree to cessation of strikes. It was made clear that the owners should regard refusal to join the Union as sufficient reason for dismissal, but this the owners were not prepared to do, though the miners' leaders were prepared to accept the proposed agreement. This was, therefore, left as a recommendation to both sides. This 100% Unionism is, of course, a major national issue and in Scotland there is also the special difficulty of the Deputies Union, which the Scottish Mineworkers wish to amalgamate with themselves.
A.R.P. arrangements . The question of fire watching is now the subject of detailed discussion between the Regional Commissioner, the owners and the Scottish Mineworkers' Union. In September last the owners agreed that full-time roof spotters should be appointed for each group of pits. Later experience proved throughout the country that this kind of arrangement was not the most effective, and the owners, therefore, offered an alternative scheme whereby roof spotters would take up their positions on receipt of the alert. The miners, however, stood out for the original agreement, and as a result surface workers stopped whenever the alarm sounded. The men appeared to be holding their ground on the principle that an agreement, once arrived at, should not be broken by one side, irrespective of the wisdom of the practice embodied in the agreement. This is borne out by recent conversations with the Deputy Regional Commissioner when the Industrial Alarm Scheme was explained to both sides, both owners and men admitted that the new scheme was both practicable and desirable.
Minor disputes involving stoppages:- In the first three months of 1941, 65 disputes took place in Scotland. (The number for the corresponding period of 1940 was 57). 58 of the 65 occurred in Lanarkshire and West Lothian. Of this total, 30 lasted for only one day, and 26 lasted for two, three or four days.
Reasons for the stoppages were - in 25 cases working conditions - in 21 cases wages and wage rate disputes - in 10 cases dismissal or transfer of workers - and in 9 from miscellaneous causes. Work was resumed on the old conditions in 33 cases, and pending negotiations in 16 cases.
The frequency of these short and apparently meaningless stoppages is an index to the general bad feeling on both sides, particularly in Lanarkshire. Most of the disputes, according to an experienced negotiator, could be settled in a very short time, given effective local conciliation machinery. The present practice of pit committees, composed entirely of representatives of the men, affirming their case before the management, tends rather to exacerbate the disagreement. It is therefore the more unfortunate that the incipient moves towards the creation of adequate local arbitrary or conciliation machinery should be held up by failure to agree on preliminary issues.
The answer to this problem, so far as the men are concerned (the owners are equally a problem) demands a closer examination of the miners' attitude to the war and of the effects of the war on the miners' way of life.
Miners and the War .
The great majority of miners are apparently unaware of the main issue of the war and of the dangerous situation the country is in. Mining villages are self-contained, closed communities, largely inaccessible to outside influences, and this isolation produces the same general unawareness of the war as is to be detected in some rural villages and small country towns. 90% of their talk is ‘shop’, 5% is sport, and the remainder is devoted to social affairs, including the war.
More important is the deep-seated hostility to the management or ‘owners’, and the suspicion of all the latter's recommendations. “The owners wouldn't be for the war if it didn't pay them” is a common remark, and many of the younger and relatively irresponsible men are much more bitter against the ‘class enemy’ than against the Nazis.
Most important of all is the general ignorance of the present and prospective shortage of coal. After a recent heavy raid five hundred miner-A.R.P. wardens in Fife remained on duty in the morning after the all-night warning. They were paid compensation for the loss of their work on the early shift. To avoid the considerable drop in coal production which this causes, instructions were given to each Chief Warden that in the case of future all-night warnings 50% of their miner-wardens were to be released for work in the pits. This caused considerable discontent among the miner-wardens. The A.R.P. sub-Controller, a local editor who knows the miners very well, then went round every A.R.P. station in his area explaining that it was not a case of the County Council trying to avoid paying 10/- a man; nor had it anything to do with pressure by the coal owners to maintain their profits. It was done entirely to avoid an abrupt drop in coal production owing to miners being on air raid duties.
This explanation was new to the miners. They did not consider the coal situation to be serious . The articulate ones pointed out that since most of the overseas markets had been lost there was surely no need for extra production. They had had bitter experience in the past of producing so much coal that they rendered themselves partly or wholly unemployed. But when the situation was fully explained to them they agreed with a good grace to accept the situation. The sub-Controller explained to us that the miners as a whole do not read the newspapers; (in any case the coal emergency has been relatively little featured in the Press). On the other hand, they would attend well conducted meetings, even in the summer, if they thought that besides such meetings a general effort was being made to improve conditions in the industry.
Effects of war - shortage of essential foods : The most important material factor in the present situation is the shortage of essential or customary food-stuffs. After the shift the miner needs and demands a good square meal and a few hours' rest; during the shift he needs sandwiches of meat, cheese or something equally nourishing, and washed down by sweet tea. He is denied these things to a great extent by the meat and sugar ration, and up till recently by the small allowance of cheese. The effects are disastrous. It is suggested, therefore, that pit canteens should be issued with special supplies of cooked meat to enable them to serve meat sandwiches to miners going down the pit.
Absenteeism and alleged slacking :- So far as can be gathered from miners and managers, roughly about 20% to 25% of the miners practice regular absenteeism. The remainder work regularly, though on rare occasions a shift will ca'canny deliberately, to force the management's hand in a dispute.
The wartime increase in absenteeism is probably due almost entirely to the greater strain put on the miners, coupled with the drop in the consumption of essential or customary food-stuffs. As one miners' leader pointed out, the miner used to work less in summer than in winter, because of the drop in demand. This gave him the opportunity to recover his energies in the slack period. But for the last two or three years, according to this leader, there has been little, if any, drop in summer work. Now the effects are beginning to tell.
Lack of spending opportunity:- In recent months most miners have been earning relatively steady wages; but the shortage of supplies, the purchase tax, etc., have made it more difficult to find anything on which to spend any extra money there may be. This situation has added to the small proportion of miners who, once they have made a certain wage, don't see the point of working any more. This is also bound up with stories about miners who stop work when their wages reach the point at which they become liable to Income Tax. Most of those in a position to know hold that there is not very much in these stories. Many miners who have absented themselves without apparent good reason (perhaps, unknown to themselves, malnutrition) give their reluctance to pay Income Tax as a good excuse.
Miners' leaders and the Essential Work Order :- Although the majority of miners may be unaware of the present emergency, their leaders are fully alive to the dangers of the situation. A delegate conference met on 8th and 9th May to discuss the Order. The conference opened with the intention of pressing for a National Joint Board to discuss wages and other conditions, a demand for the abolition of non-Unionism in the mines, and a minimum weekly wage. But the delegates, being informed of the present situation, agreed to leave it to the Executive to accept the Essential Work Order on the promise that national negotiations respecting wages should be entered into at once with the support of the Government.
The working of the Order will not be easy, however. Three districts, including Scotland, voted against the majority decision at the conference, and unless some agreement on a guaranteed weekly wage, satisfactory to the miners, is arrived at, it is unlikely that the Essential Work Order will be applied without friction, particularly in Scotland. The example of the dockers 24.2.6. is frequently cited. But there the resemblance ends. “Don't imagine” we were warned, “that the Government can impose a date for the acceptance of the Essential Work Order and get away with it as they did with the Glasgow dockers and their guaranteed week scheme”.
Informal discussions in Fife show that some leading coal companies are beginning to think seriously of a minimum weekly wage with a special war bonus sufficient to attract back to the mines workers who are now earning good money in munitions. Generous treatment of the miners in the present situation would not only get these essential workers back without trouble: it would also, in the opinion of the miners' leaders, go far to alter the miners' habitual attitude of hostility and end suspicion of the owners and the Government.
Communist influence :- Communists and near-Communists, acting on broadly political or revolutionary grounds, are working hard and with success at exploiting grievances in the mines. Not only are they successful in confirming and rendering articulate the miners' distrust of the owner class and in spreading a general cynicism about the war. They are also successful in confirming and encouraging the miners' existing habits of demonstration stoppages so as to hamper production, particularly in the districts of Cowdenbeath in Fife, and Blantyre and Shotts in Lanarkshire. The Lanarkshire Miners' Union was the only important working-class body in Scotland to send delegates to the People's Convention. At the recent annual conference of the 26 Scottish Mineworkers' Federation a cleverly worded resolution praising the ‘Soviet Union's policy of peace’ was passed by 37,000 to 12,000 votes in spite of opposition from the chair and platform.
In the mines these men do not act as Communists. They are genuinely in almost every case, miners with a grievance; their Communism being a clearcut set of dogma which give an impressive and inspiring background to the particular grievance. They act, not only against the miners' leaders. In the name of working-class unity and 100% trade unionism, they encourage stoppages condemned by the union and withhold particulars of local disputes from the miner's agent.
It would be a mistake to attribute the miners' attitude of hostility to the owners and indifference to the war to Communist machinations. On the contrary, these disruptive elements are relatively more effective among the miners than among other industrial workers precisely because wages, working conditions and industrial relations give them more scope. Many miners are still unaware of the present emergency, and the great part they can play in the country's defence. They are, therefore, liable to influence by the quasi-defeatism and cynicism of Communist propaganda, the more so because the condition of the industry up till recently has been slack.
Recommendations
Need for adequate conciliation machinery, food supply etc . Better industrial relations, an adequate local machinery of conciliation, and a guaranteed weekly wage are necessary material and institutional conditions of improvement. If the three parties, Government, owners and men, can operate the Essential Work Order harmoniously, this will effect the necessary improvements.
An adequate food supply is needed also to reduce absenteeism and the general exasperation which fosters minor disputes. It would help matters if the owners could assist in the institution of new pit canteens and with any special issue that may be found possible, of meat etc. for sandwiches to be sold to workers going underground.
Favourable opportunity for propaganda and Publicit y:- Several influential miners' leaders have expressed the hope that effective publicity will be undertaken by the Government on positive lines. “We will welcome any assistance you can give us”, said one leader, “to bring home to these younger irresponsible, chaps why they've got to get down to winning this war. But you'll need to have a good straightforward case. The miners have no use for mere exhortation”.
We think it would be unwise to embark on any loud or widely advertised campaign of propaganda. The general method should be to secure the collaboration of some leaders among the owners and the men for a quiet and intensive effort at persuasion. It has been suggested to us in various quarters that the Secretary of State for Scotland commands the confidence of the miners and that he and Mr. Joseph Westwood, M.P., Under Secretary of State could play a very influential part in securing the goodwill of the miners' leaders in a well-planned campaign of persuasion.
The general policy should be to attempt to identify the miners with the struggle against the common enemy. “It must be explained that the extra output required has nothing to do with the owners' profit. Tell the miners that the country is in danger and that their best efforts are needed to save their sons and brothers on active service from the grave danger they are in”. This is the gist of the advice given us.
We are reluctant to set down anything that would look like a cut-and-dried plan of action, because, in our view, we should proceed tentatively, taking local circumstances into account. Careful preliminary work would be necessary in each district.
Meetings are the best method of getting the miners' attention. The speakers should, as far as possible, be known to the men, and the co-operation of local Coal Production, and Pit Production Committees, and in particular local miner's leaders, should, therefore, be sought.
These meetings should be held at the pithead or in the village in the open air, preferably with a loud-speaker van. Indoor meetings might also be successful, especially if preceded in previous weeks by Ministry of Information films.
We are already co-operating with miners' welfare clubs in the showing of films, and many of the Ministry's films usefully subserve the purpose of the proposed campaign. But it would be worth while making other films, and we should be prepared to make suggestions for suitable subjects.
In several mining districts War Commentary Meetings have already been instituted, and these are being extended as rapidly as possible. They are held usually in cinemas on Sunday evenings and provide an informed exposition of the progress of the war. In Kilmarnock and Hamilton they are attended by between 1,500 and 2,00 people each week.
In industrial areas the organiser of informal discussion groups which have been successful in combatting Communist influence, is co-operating with voluntary workers and is preparing to extend these discussions to the mining areas.
Leaflets by themselves will arouse little interest. But leaflets distributed at effective local meetings would be read and marked. One leaflet should state clearly the facts of the situation. Others might follow the model of the leaflet “Workers under Nazi Gangsters” e.g. “Miners under Nazi Bosses”.
The co-operation of the newspapers (including local weeklies) which circulate in the mining areas, and of the B.B.C. for feature items and the handling of news to help in this effort, should also be sought. The model generally should be the quiet and unobstrusive work done on the Industrial Areas Campaign during the past few months.
Public Relations Branch,
St. Andrew's House,
Edinburgh.1.
21st May, 1941